News release: “If you think similarities in the Internet and television are growing, parents may be inclined to agree with you. Parents are rapidly coming to view TV and the Web in similar ways, applying supervisory approaches to both mediums, according to a new survey by the Center for the Digital Future, at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. In a worrisome trend, the Center also reports in its 2010 survey that an increasing percentage of parents say Internet access at home is reducing their children’s in-person time with friends. Researchers at the Center report parents are now limiting their children’s Internet access and television use in nearly identical ways. Three in five American households restrict television use as a punishment, a figure that’s hardly budged over the past decade. Restricting children’s Internet use as a form of punishment has steadily increased over the years and is now a practice in 57 percent of the nation’s homes with children under 18. The new survey also shows, however, that parents are still more comfortable about the amount of time their children spend on the Internet v. television, with 69 percent saying it was just about right (v. 57 percent for television); only 28 percent thought their children spent too much time on the Internet, against 41 percent who thought television time was excessive.”