When we think of Polish everyday life, we can easily notice the attitude that making a profit is more important than anything else. Thus, television in Poland has also become very commercialized over recent years. As a result, a number of programmes for children has been still declining. According to the Central Statistical Office's research published in the Gazeta Wyborcza, of the one hundred per cent of viewers who watch soap opera entitled 'The Rebellious Angel', over sixteen per cent reported are children with the 4-15 age group. Moreover, almost the same population of young people very often watch reality shows such as 'Big Brother' or 'Two Words'. This means that children watch what they should not watch. Perhaps the main reason for this alarming fact is the lack of money on making programmes for young audience. Other contributing factors include the quality of broadcasts and the time of showing them on television.
Firstly, one way to combat this problem would be for the TV management to decide to intend a certain pool of money for making programmes for children. Naturally, it appears a question: how to earn money for this purpose? It would be a good idea if a profit from the advertised products for children was spent nothing but on broadcasts for the young viewers. Furthermore, the TV management should focus its attention on trying to find persons and organisations that would help to pay for making programmes, films or plays for children. Consequently, a pool of money for this purpose would be on the increase.
Another way to solve this financial problem would be for the government to earmark a quantity of money for output of broadcasts for children. Not only would such a sponsorship aid to television's budget, but it might also be a good way to cooperate with TV management on making decisions.
An alternative way to deal with this problem could be also for the government to censor the content of certain types of programmes. These broadcasts that are felt to exert negative influence on children or are of poor quality could not be shown or only late at night when young people are not likely to be watching. Thus, the degree to which children might be negatively affected by what they watch would be limited.
If measures were taken to increase the quality of the programmes, the situation might improve. The TV management could organise a competition to find the most interesting and popular play or film for children. In this way, not only would money motivate the producers and the artists to make high-grade broadcasts, but a lot of prestige, success and satisfaction might also be encouraged to do that.
One final suggestion which would help, is to change the time of showing programmes for today's youth. A lot of broadcasts are shown at all hours and usually during the time the children are at school. It would be a good idea if some of the programmes could be viewed at the same time of the day or of the week by the children who are at home and have their free time. As a result, watching TV every young person would have a chance to find something interesting for herself or himself.
To sum up, there are several measures which could be taken to overcome a problem of the types and the horrifying quality of TV programmes watched by children in Poland. If the government and the TV management alike were to change this situation, the young viewers would watch their favourite, high quality programmes during their free time.
Aleksandra Kuczborska | 
