You mean we can't watch football around the kids?

I've written several times (like here, here and in my book) about research that points to the importance of content -- what is on the screen -- instead of only focusing on how much time young children spend with a screen.

Now it may be time to look even more deeply at what we mean by content, because the answer doesn't always jibe with what our culture considers okay for childhood consumption. Consider the way content was categorized in two articles in November's Pediatrics, which have received a fair amount of press. The studies showed a link between violent-TV watching at 2 or 3 and attention and agression problems five years later. Dimitri Christakis and Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington, the studies' authors, put content in three groups -- educational, non-violent entertainment and violent entertainment -- and offered popular examples for each. In their study on childhood aggression, Power Rangers, football, Star Wars, Space Jam, and Spider-Man were labeled as violent content watched frequently by boys.

Yup, that's right: football is in that list. Paul Nyhan, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who writes the Working Dad blog, has been following the research on children and TV and recently interviewed me for a story on the Pediatrics studies. Poring over the details of the study, he asked: Is even football off limits?

I kept hearing that question in my head this weekend, as our extended family gathered around the big-screen TV to watch the U.Va.-Virginia Tech game. (Yes, U.Va. lost. Drats.) There were four kids in the room: My daughters, 3 and 5, my nephew, 2, and my husband's younger brother, 11. The kids weren't watching very much (climbing the couch and putting together puzzles was more fun), but sometimes they snuggled in with the grownups to watch. Players threw each other to the ground, piled on top of each other, blocked and shoved. In other words, they played the game the way it's supposed to be played.

Is moderation the key? Will the negative impact, if there is one, be curtailed by once-a-month viewing? And couldn't context make a difference? If I tell my kids about what they are seeing -- noting that the players are wearing pads and helmets, pointing out that pulling on the face mask is against the rules -- will they come out ahead? Should I be more concerned about the commercials they see than the game itself?

That's the thing about media research and children. There are always more questions.