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Reports claimed that Spanish television networks are the reason why children stay up late at night. Apparently, they are regularly showing some of the children’s favorite show late at night.
Children’s shows starts at 10pm are La Voz Kids (The Voice Kids) and MasterChef Junior, Asociación de Usuarios de la Comunicación wants the broadcasts of the said shows to be move to a more child-friendly hours.
For the past five years, children need t stay late at night just to watch their favorite TV show, as stated by Alejandro Perales, the group's president. The late night shows are the reason why children sacrifice their sleep to watch their favourite programs. "Then they wake up late the next morning, they don't eat breakfast, they arrive late at school," Perales said.
According to the date of TV ratings show, around 600,000 Spanish children aged four to 12 are still awake to watch TV after 10pm on any given weeknight. Perales blamed it on the children's version of the Spanish spinoff of The Voice, which aired its final episode last week. The show ends around 1:30 in the morning, but the children still have lots of energy.
Perales also blames the Spanish workday since Spanish people don’t work before 7 pm or 8 pm. This trait pushes dinner and TV viewing to much later in the evening. The schedules in Spain are late compared to other countries.
For months, he and his group are urging the parents to discipline their children to sleep earlier. But, the problem is with the youngsters since they don’t like to sleep early – with some even talking back against their parent just to watch their favorite show. Some kids even say that it is a social crime not to watch their favorite show.
Now, the group focuses its attention on the Spanish television networks, pressuring them to agree to air children's programmes earlier. However, the media doesn’t seem to care so they need the government to back them up. Late-night children's shows are the bread and butter of most TV networks. The networks are taking advantage of family time to get more children to watch their show.
Perales' efforts are just a small part of a larger campaign, being waged by the Association for the Rationalisation of Spanish Working Hours, to push TV networks to move prime-time to an earlier hour. According to the group, 90% of Spain's top-rated television programmes finishes later than 11:30pm and above half finish after midnight.
The consequences, said Ignacio Buqueras, president of the group, is that Spanish people sleep late at night. In a his note, he urges his people to support the campaign, he added: "We're in a country beset by crisis, which requires everyone to put in a little extra effort to maintain high levels of commitment and work efficiency."
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