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We worry about so many dangers to our children—drugs, perverts, bullies—but seldom notice the biggest menace of all: the multibillion-dollar marketing effort aimed at turning the kids into oversexed, status-obsessed, attention-deficient little consumers.
- Barbara Ehrenreich
Every activity a child engages in during his busy day refines some set of skills. Reading is practice; writing is practice; sports is practice; engaging in fantasy games is practice; and interacting with people is practice. All these activities in some way help prepare a child for the challenges of adult life. Television is also practice, but not for any activity. Television is practice for inactivity.
- Lawrence Kelemen
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Parents see media, not sex, as top worry: study - Reuters (Feb 2007)
What do I need to know about children and television? - University of Michigan (June 2007)
"Middle school students who watch TV or play video games during the week do worse in school, a new study finds, but weekend viewing and gaming doesn't affect school performance much." - USAToday (Oct 2006) More on the same study - Telegraph (Oct 2006) - More on the same study - CBS News (Oct 2006) - and more MSNBC (Oct 2006) - and more Softpedia (Oct 2006)
"Researchers found that children who watched more than two hours of television per day from age 2 1/2 until age 5 1/2 were more likely to develop sleep, attention, and aggressive behavior problems than those who watched less." - WebMD (Oct 2007) and Arizona Republic (Oct 2007) via Unplug Your Kids (Oct 2007)
Childhood TV and gaming is 'major public health issue' - New Scientist (April 2006)
"In what researchers call the first report of its kind, a review of 173 studies about the effects of media consumption on children asserts that a strong correlation exists between greater exposure and adverse health outcomes." - The New York Times (Dec 2008)
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: Children, Adolescents, and Television - AAP Policy (Feb 2001)
"In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood." They write: "We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions."
Strangers in Our Homes: TV and Our Children's Minds - Susan Johnson, M.D. (1999)
Kids' Brains Must Be Different - Excerpted from Endangered Minds
What About Play? When "screen time" and drills replace open-ended play, kids lose out - eRethinking Schools (2005)
"...a study which examined the association between maternal depression and television watching in children" - Psychology Today (2002)
"sleep disturbances and stomach ailments were frequently reported as resulting from a child's viewing of something frightening on TV" - Parenthood in America (1998)
Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - Free Range Kids versus Battery Cage kids - USA Today (July 2005)
PERSONAL HEALTH; TV's Toll on Young Minds and Bodies - The New York Times (Aug 2004)
Children and Watching TV - American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (March 2001)
Psychologist warns of "educational television" myth - Reuters (Feb 2008) via Unplug Your Kids
"The Pornification Of A Generation: A new book traces the migration of porn culture from adult theaters to the mainstream—and asks what that means for kids." - Newsweek (Oct 2008)
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Note, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends "Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged." - AAP Policy Statement (Aug 1999) and AAP Policy Statement (Feb 2001)
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Like the sorcerer of old, the television set casts its magic spell,
freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues
so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the
television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces -
although there is danger there - as in the behavior it prevents:
The talks, the games, the family festivals, and the arguments
through which much of the child's learning takes place and
through which his character is formed. Turning on the television
set can turn off the process that transforms children into people.
- Urie Bronfenbrenner
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TV Contributes to Noisy Home Environment
"We've known for a long time that chronic noise is having a devastating effect on academic performance of children in noisy homes and schools" - Education World (July 1997)
"A child's brain has to work overtime in a noisy classroom to do its typical but very important job of distinguishing sounds whose subtle differences are key to success with language and reading. But that simply is too much to ask of the nervous system of a subset of poor readers whose hearing is fine, but whose brains have trouble differentiating the "ba," "da" and "ga" sounds in a noisy environment, according to a new Northwestern University study." - Science Daily (July 2009)
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TV and Sleep
 "Video games, mobile phones and TV are keeping children up at night, answers to a BBC questionnaire suggest." - BBC News (Feb 2010)
"TV Time Disrupts Tots' Sleep" - Personal MD (Oct 2005)
"Too much TV during the day could mean too little sleep for kids, according to a new study." - Science Central (June 2004)
"Children who spend hours in front of the television could be storing up sleep problems for later in life, say scientists. Watching three hours or more a day leaves teenagers twice as likely to develop sleep problems when they get older." - Daily Mail (Oct 2004)
"Feelings of depression and low self-esteem plague children as they advance through middle school because they get increasingly less sleep, according to a new study of 2,259 Illinois students. - Science Daily (Feb 2004)
"Reducing the amount of sleep students get at night has a direct impact on their performance at school during the day. According to classroom teachers, elementary and middle school students who stay up late exhibit more learning and attention problems, Brown Medical School and Bradley Hospital research shows." - Science Daily - (Nov 2005)
"Of the 280 examined in the Pediatrics study, those who slept for fewer than eight hours were the most hyperactive." - BBC News (April 2009)
In Defense of a Good Night's Sleep
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Educational TV
Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points to all there is, imagination points to all there will be - Einstein
But what about educational TV? TV is an effective means of passive learning. Unfortunately TV (educational or not) associates a very rewarding experience with no effort. Before TV there was no equivalent experience other than day dreaming. So kids get used to learning and being rewarded with no effort on their part, in other words watching TV is actually training their brain to be lazy. Then when it's time to start school, learning takes effort and is quite boring compared to TV. Even play takes effort, hence the common observation that kids who watch a lot of TV are less interested in playing.
Well, why not just have the kids go to school and learn from educational TV? Education is about more than just info aquisition, it's also about learning skills, such as reading, writing, math, etc. And learning skills takes effort. After thousands of hours of effortless learning (and being rewarded) kids are that much less motivated to make that effort. And that's something that makes life much harder for our nation's teachers.
For those kids not raised on TV, making an effort becomes second-nature. This would help explain this study: ...watching a lot of television during childhood means you are a lot less likely to have a degree by your mid-twenties, according to new University of Otago research
Maybe it's the failed work ethic of todays kids
Self-Discipline More Important Than IQ ?
Passive Learning From Television (pdf)
Habit Learning - TV Makes Learning Less Efficient
Young Children Need to Play!
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Marketing to Children
"Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and University of Michigan found that children aged three to five succumbed to the same marketing pressures as young adults, in that they understood the advertiser wanted them to buy something and that buying the product could make them happier."
Research shows that children under the age of eight are unable to critically comprehend televised advertising messages and are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased.
AAP - "Children, Adolescents, and Advertising"
"Children are big business. And that means my daughter is a popular kid these days. Taco Bell wants her, and so do McDonald's and Burger King. Abercrombie & Fitch has a whole store devoted to her. Pert Plus has a shampoo she'll love. Ethan Allen is creating bedroom sets she can't live without. ALPO even wants to sell her dog food. Even while I, like all American parents, am held responsible for the safety and behavior of my preteen, corporations spend over $12 billion each year to bombard her incessantly with messages that undermine my efforts."
"This is significant when we consider that the most essential product of the advertising industry is hunger. That is, commercials are intended to create a feeling of lack in the viewer, a deep ache that can only be assuaged by purchasing the product. As Dr. Neil Postman, chairman of the Department of Communications Arts at New York University, points out, “What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer.” So we hand our children over to Madison Avenue to be told, hundreds of hours a year, how hungry, bored, ugly, and unpopular they are and will continue to be until they spend (or persuade their parents to spend) a few more dollars. And then we wonder why our children feel so hungry, bored, ugly, and unpopular, and why they are so needy."
"In Sweden it is considered unacceptable and is banned for children under 12 with the approval of the majority of the population."
Companies are accused of routinely hiring child and consumer psychologists to "help them target children effectively", with devastating consequences for the health and wellbeing of youngsters.
"Regrettably, a large gap has arisen between the humane mission of psychology and the drift of the profession into helping corporations influence children for the purpose of selling products to them. The use of psychological insight and methodology to bypass parents and influence the behavior and desires of children is a crisis for the profession of psychology."
"A report of the American Psychological Association (APA) released today found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development."
The Stepford Kids
"What most surprised me were the results I got from my study, which found that the more kids are exposed to consumer culture, they likelier they are to become depressed, suffer from anxiety, or experience low self-esteem. I would have thought it was the other way around — that consumer culture was the symptom, not the cause."
Channel One
Channel One - How Much Remembered?
Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising
Watch Not, Want Not? Packard/Stanford Study Links Kids' TV Time and Consumerism
Effects of Reducing Television Viewing on Children's Requests for Toys: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Childhood for Sale: Consumer Culture's Bid for Our Kids
A Review of "Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds"
Research shows that children under the age of eight are unable to critically comprehend televised advertising messages and are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased.
"A comparison group of children from Sweden, where advertising to children is not permitted, asked for significantly fewer items. It is argued that English children who watch more TV, and especially those who watch alone, may be socialised to become consumers from a very early age. "
"Identifying determinants of young children's brand awareness: Television, parents, and peers " - Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (April 2005)
TV Food Ads Misleading Kids
TV Ads Add Pounds to Our Kids
TV ads contribute to child obesity
Researchers Say Prime Time for Kids Has Heavy Advertising for High-Sugar Foods
"A report published this month confirms that television is effective in getting children to eat the foods advertised"
"Children’s television networks show 76 percent more food commercials per hour than other networks – and most of them are for high-fat, high-sugar foods, according to a new study." - Food Navigator (Nov 2009)
Other Countries Restrict Advertising to Children
Today’s children are unique in many ways from previous generations, but perhaps the most influencing on our young children today is Television advertisements.
"Sweden Pushes Its Ban on Children's Ads"
"How Alcohol Companies Launched a Digital Campaign Against America's Kids"
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