TV Watching
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When our children were young, we limited them during the school year to one hour-long or two half hour shows at the most, on school nights. They had so many other things to do that it didn't really cause a problem. On the weekends and during the summer we weren't as vigilant about how much they were watching as we were WHAT they were watching. My son loved to watch nature shows with animals, and he could tell us all about cheetahs and alligators while my daughter was more likely to watch Miss Frizzle's Magic School Bus. They both loved Mr. Rogers and Veggie Tales. In any of those cases, they were watching wholesome or educational programming.

However, since you are asking for how much is too much, I'd say that if they have other things that aren't getting done, that would be one indication of too much, or if they lost interest in real-life activities like going outside to play, then I would be concerned.

On a day when they had few other responsibilities, like a Saturday, I can't imagine that I'd be too happy with them watching more than four hours in a single day (that would be once in a while, not four hours every day during the summer, more like two hours on average). On a school day, one hour seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Here's and interesting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biTxqWd0b6k&feature=related

I dont think there is too much, as compared to not doing enough of other stuff.
as long as they are watching programs suitable for theyre age, i dont see a problem with how much they watch, but when they forget about regular stuff (playing outside, homework, etc.) then you have to start limiting them, so they realize what is most important

All of it isn't good for kids. TV is given to kids when parents want a break, a plug in babysitter. Commercials between kids shows are like giving someone permission to manipulate your kids and most of them aren't FOR kids at all!

My advice on a similar question about when is it okay to put a TV in your kids room. My answer was basically, "at the same age you'd let a total stranger talk to your kid unsupervised."

Kids will get more value from activities, your example, and time with you than they ever will from TV, unless you're training them to work in the TV/Movie/Advertising industry.

Teach your children how to think for themselves, don't let the advertising industry raise your kids. Talk about failing logic skills...

Learn to relax with your children and turn the TV off while you do it. Part of false advertising is the illusion that parents can't relax unless their kids are watching TV or they are. We only get most of them for 18 years (if we're lucky), don't squander away a bulk of that time as a Nielsen statistic. Most people were raised watching TV so they don't HAVE any other parenting skillsets to draw from. Don't pass along a dysfunctional lifestyle to your children.

See that just baffles me...I may only be 20 but when I was 10 years older I rarely watched TV I was too busy playing sports or bike riding with friends...It's so strange to me how much has changed in the past 10 years...I feel a 10 year old should be active...Don't get me wrong on a rainy day a family movie or family Wii bowling would be great...atleast the wii keeps you moving...

I limit my kids to 1 hour TV and 1 hour computer time per day.

We don't want them to be Couch Potatoes or Mouse potatoes, Do we?

Studies have shown that too much TV can make kids more likely to be obese — and, depending on the content, more aggressive.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that older kids not watch more than 1–2 hours of TV or video per day, and that kids under age 2 not watch any television. They also recommend that the shows children watch be nonviolent and educational. Above all, TV shouldn't be a substitute for activities like playing, exercising, or reading.

We limit our children's television consumption mainly because we hate ad overload, especially this time of the year. What we do is give the kids a chart for when they want to choose a program, and everyone gets to weigh in on what to watch. During school nights, there is time for about two hours total per day. Weekend nights, it can be as much as three hours in the morning and three or four at night (enough time for two movies.)

Hmm... well... you may not believe this, and I suspect you're not going to like it... (and trust me... I choke on saying this as much as I suspect you will gag to hear it, but it's an old study, and it's never been refuted)... but...

Kids who can read (over about the age of about 6... and I'll explain why the issue of being able to read is important in a bit) who watch TV are actually more advanced than those who watch no TV at all up until about the age of 12.

After the age of 12, those who watch TV start getting dragged back, such that by the age of 15, kids who do not watch a lot of TV get well ahead of those who do watch a lot of TV in terms of general knowledge and social-cognitive ability.

The reason is because public television content is deliberately honed and edited to be at the comprehension level of the average viewer, which in the US is that of a sixth-grader... i.e. a 12 year old. (In Canada and Australia it's a tad better... it's supposed to be at the comprehension level of an eighth-grader, about 14... in England it's better, at a ninth grade level, about that of a 15 year old... and the best is New Zealand, at eleventh grade, about 17, for the population's average level of cognition and comprehension).

Consequently, when a kid (in the US, or any place watching a lot of American TV) is younger than 12, the content they are seeing on TV is pulling them forward, but after the sixth grade, it is pulling them back.

That means there's no problem letting elementary-grade kids watch TV all they want... but that doesn't say anything about what it would take to break them of the TV habit when they hit middle-school.

Now... back to the statement about the child having an ability to read before becoming a regular TV watcher... and I know it's off-topic from your original question, but I feel compelled to say something about it:

Kids who never learned how to read, and are then subject to limitless amounts of television, *never* quite learn how to read right, even with remedial training later, and it has to do with the fact that written English has a slightly different grammar and syntax from spoken English!

What is starting to become known (as a result of studies done on kids brain-trained with those computer games that are supposed to give kids a head-start as preschoolers) is that...

... Kids never learn how to read quite right Unless They Are READ TO Before They Learn How To Read!

It has to do with the fact that when being READ TO, kids have to learn to imagine what's being said, combined with how being READ TO familiarizes their ear to the subtle differences between ordinary day-to-day spoken English versus written English, such that when it comes time for them to learn to read for themselves, if they already have a sense for that subtle difference in grammar and syntax of written English from having been READ TO, they can pick it up much faster and easier and more naturally, because they only have to focus on learning how to recognize the characters and the words, which is a rote process at the best of time, whereas grammar and syntax are cognitive functions.

If you've read memoirs of all the greats from Einstein to Winston Churchill, you'll notice they all note how they were Read To as young children... by an aunt, or a gramma, or a parent, or a nanny...

But once kids start suckling their minds on TV, then unless the writers of that television programming are careful to make sure that the grammar and syntax spoken on the tube is of the written form, the the kids' minds get gummed up trying to learn written grammar at school, because it's a slightly alien *grammar* to them... not to mention how the tube does the imagining for them, so they don't get the same practice using their imaginations as when being Read To.

The worst time to let kids watch TV or be computer-brain-trained is before the age of 3.5, when the limbic system (mesocortical level) of the brain is still imprinting, because that's when even deeper foundation-level cognitive circuits for language comprehension are being jelled for the comprehension of the logic of the grammar of their mother-tongue in general, not to mention the subtle differences between spoken versus written English to be learned from 3.5 until 6 (if Read To).

Yes I know that vendors of brain-training software don't want to hear that, but there's nothing stopping them from converting their business to audio-book creation in order to satisfy the market of families having parents who are such terrible readers themselves that they can't read to their own kids...

And yes... it means it's a Great Idea to Read To your preschoolers! Bedtime stories! The works!

And, as I bet you've figured out by now... it never hurts to read to kids of any age literature that's a few years ahead of what they're expected to be able to comprehend when reading for themselves at whatever is their age.

Which ... brings us back to the original question, which was...

Q: How much TV is too much TV for children under 10?

A: i) None at all before the age of 3.5, ii) very little until it's known they can grasp the logic of written English and can read even just simple stuff for themselves, and iii) if they can read, then as much as they want until about the age of 12, after which point it's going to start slowing them down.

Everyone will have different opinions on this. But I think 1 hour is enough & 2 hours is too much. Children should do creative activities like playing, reading, making something. No question TV is also a good media but it should be consumed in proper way. Cartoons don't give lots of information to kid. So 2 hours is too much.