Abstract
Objectives: Television is the most influencing mass media. It has taken an important part in our daily life as the information source. Transmitted informations are the important sources for building one's conscience, value and behavior for all age groups from young children to aged. Methods: In this paper, all land-based TV programs for young children has been monitored by quantity and quality from July 1st 2008 'till December 31st. General programs for young children have been monitored by its theme, type, contents delivery method, proportion of diet and health information in the program, and appropriateness. For the analysis, SPSS was used. Results: Young children's program 2,771 programs and 47,169 minutes during the period were monitored. From programs for young children about 'general' and 'cooking', there were 48programs(30.6%) that has contents about dishes, 47programs(29.9%) about food and nutrition, 34programs(21.7%) about life habits. From the programs, diet and health has been delivered by 'practical exercise(38.9%)', by 'cartoon & puppet show(31.2%)', followed by 'explanation from experts(15.3%)', 'song & movement(8.9%)', and 'simple introduction(4.4%)'. From programs for young children about 'general' and 'cooking', there were 157programs that has contents about ideas and delivery method being considered, 'appropriate(45.7%)' for giving positive and 'inappropriate(54.3%)' for its negative influence to young children, the need of improvement was suggested. Conclusion: Considering the importance of infancy in one's lifetime, not only specific field but each program for young children itself should be monitored by experts of each field. A plan on how to deliver accurate content effectively to young children should be searched in various ways.
