Post: What to Do About Baby Media
What to Do About Baby Media
The members of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood fired off an angry open letter to President Bush after last week's State of the Union address, angry that Bush celebrated Baby Einstein founder Julie Aigner-Clark in his speech.
"It is extremely disappointing that the President used his State of the Union address to provide a free infomercial for a company built on false and deceptive marketing," began the letter. "Despite its claims, there is no evidence that watching Baby Einstein videos is educational for babies and toddlers."
At Common Sense Media, we've long struggled with what to do about Baby Einstein and other baby media.
We know that TV and videos will not make a baby's brain develop better. There is no research that proves your child will gain IQ points by watching shapes and animated characters drift or dance across a screen.
Actually, it's parents interacting with their babies -- in front of the screen or not -- that's going to build their brains.
We do review baby media because parents are using them. Baby Einstein, which launched in 1997, started a mini-industry that has grown so fast that today, one American child in three has seen either one of their videos or a competitor’s.
Given the startling numbers of children under 2 watching TV (a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 61 percent of babies 1 year or younger watch an average of 1:20 hours of screen media in a typical day), we feel we should at least give parents some solid information about the products they're being offered.
Even so, at Common Sense we continue to take to heart the American Academy of Pediatrics' advice when they recommend no television before the age of 2.
Remember that every minute in front of a TV is a minute not spent exploring the world with senses other than sight and sound. When babies watch TV, they're not simply being entertained, they're learning to sit and stare at a screen.
To read the CCFC's open letter, click here.
There are 2 replies to this post
Date: February 1, 2007
I missed the Presidential address, but have written in depth about parents using TV as an 'electronic pacifier' http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=125
So must vehemently side with Dr. Linn, the CCFC, the AAP, and our Shaping Youth board member pediatricians on this one.
I simply can't freakin' believe that Baby Einstein was actually referenced in a Presidential address, so must hunt for evidence on YouTube, as I'm clearly aghast. Talk about blurring media lines with commercialism and policy...egad, that makes church & state look like bed pals. Yikes.
Is the baby media empire on the payroll or something? I need to do some investigating here...as the kids say, "that's just wrong."
Link: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=206
Date: February 1, 2007
Sorry, I posted the wrong link on the Baby Einstein piece, here it is again, below.
Link: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=125