The dangers of television for young children

General research on the impact of new media

As I have written previously on this blog, a study conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University has analysed the more general effects of new media across 173 research studies. It considered studies across a period of 30 years that addressed the impact of television, music, movies and other media on the lives of children and adolescents. Many studies showed that there is a significant relationship between time devoted (i.e. excessive time) to new media and a variety of health or behavioural problems, for example:

• 83% of studies found a relationship with obesity
• 88% found a relationship to sexual behaviour
• 75% found a relationship to drug use
• 80% found a relationship to alcohol use
• 88% found a relationship to tobacco use
• 69% found a relationship to ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

In releasing the report one of the researchers, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, of the NIH, commented that:

"The results clearly show that there is a strong correlation between media exposure and long-term negative health effects to children. This study provides an important jumping-off point for future research that should explore both the effects of traditional media content and that of digital media -- such as video games, the Internet, and cell phones -- which kids are using today with more frequency."

The impact of media and technology on very young children

While there are many wonderful benefits of new media, the upshot of the above studies is that too much exposure to 'new' media appears to be harmful. There has also been more recent research into the impact of media on very young children, particularly the impact of television in the preschool years. This research has raised very serious questions about the potential impact that video games, television and related technology mediated images may have on children's learning. In fact, some researchers have suggested that too much exposure to television may have an impact on the developing brain (see my introductory post on early brain development here). We know from the research of neuroscientists that environmental experiences can shape brain development due to the plasticity of neuronal connectivity in the young brain. They suggest that significant and repeated exposure to specific stimuli may have an impact on the child's intellectual and emotional development. This they believe can occur by setting up specific "habits of mind" or by depriving the child's brain of other significant experiences.

The same experts suggest that language rich environments with lots of interaction with adult caregivers, stimulating opportunities for play and other forms of stimulation to learn, enhance brain development. However, they conclude that in contrast, those that encourage passivity and limit social interaction, creative play and problem solving "...may have deleterious and irrevocable consequences". As a result of such findings the American Academy of Paediatrics has recommended that children under 2 years of age do not watch television and that children over two should have no more than two hours of media (e.g. TV, computers, gaming) use per day. This recommendation reflects the repeated identification of varied effects from too much television viewing, including those listed at the beginning of this post.

What does this mean for parents of toddlers?

The first thing to note is that the potential damage caused to the young child's intellectual development is caused as much by what the child isn't doing as the screen-based stimulation itself. If, for example, lots of television viewing replaces, play, story reading, interaction with adults etc, then this is problematic and could have a negative effect on your child's health, development and learning.

The second thing to note is that in a multi-child family where there is a television that it's hard to stop toddlers from watching. As well, children do learn many things from television and this can stimulate other worthwhile activities like storytelling, creative activity, literacy learning etc. TV isn't all bad! It's simply a problem if uncontrolled and over-used.

The third thing to note is that small amounts of televisions seen around the edges of family life should not be a major concern. This type of inadvertent viewing is not likely to cause significant harm if in limited amounts. There may be issues with children seeing adult content, but this is another topic and once again, it requires parent care and control.

Finally, I'd stress that the first 12 months of life is the most critical period. I can't see any good reason for television viewing as a planned activity at this age. If you do allow your toddler under 2 to watch television I'd argue for it to be strictly limited. Short sessions of 5-10 minutes with your active participation are a very low risk. Choosing the right programs is important. I see value in programs that invite the active participation of the child (e.g. actions, dance, singing, clapping etc). If television can be avoided for the first two years it may well be wise, but in many families this won't be practical. For me the key is to emphasise play, language stimulation, story telling and reading, physical activity, problem solving, manipulation of objects, real life experiences etc. Don't allow television to become a baby sitter for children under two years where they sit transfixed for long periods. This is what research is showing to be problematic and potentially harmful. I've listed some of my previous posts that relate to this type of stimulation below.

Related links

My previous posts on play (here)

My previous posts on learning (here)

My posts previous posts that address the impact of TV (here)

My previous posts on language experience (here)

American Academy of Paediatrics policy on 'Children, adolescents and television' (here)

'Understanding TV's effects on the developing brain' (here).

Media Awareness Network article, “Television’s Impact on Kids” here

Brain wave: How technology changes our thinking, by Gerard Wright

The impact of new media on children

I’ve written previously on this blog about the impact of television on children (here and here). However, a new meta-analysis study has analysed the more general effects of media across 173 studies with worrying findings. The study was conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University. It considered studies across a period of 30 years that adressed the impact of television, music, movies and other media on the lives of children and adolescents. The findings are worrying. For example, many studies showed that there is a significant relationship between time devoted to new media and a variety of health or behavioural problems, for example:

• 83% of studies found a relationship with obesity
• 88% found a relationship to sexual behaviour
• 75% found a relationship to drug use
• 80% found a relationship to alcohol use
• 88% found a relationship to tobacco use
• 69% found a relationship to ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

In releasing the report this week one of the researchers, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, of the NIH, commented that:

"The results clearly show that there is a strong correlation between media exposure and long-term negative health effects to children. This study provides an important jumping-off point for future research that should explore both the effects of traditional media content and that of digital media -- such as video games, the Internet, and cell phones -- which kids are using today with more frequency."

While there are many benefits of new media there are clearly disadvantages if children spend too much time with machines that generate images, and sound and not enough time with people, engaging in real relationships, exploring their physical world, playing, listening to stories and engaging in ways that stimulate them in other ways. I've written a great deal about the alternative benefits of things such as play (here), reading (here) and creative activities (here).

This latest research comes on top of an increasing number of studies that are demonstrating that excessive exposure to media like television, video games and computers, can actually change the activity and ‘shape’ of the brain as well as slowing down activity (I'll post on this later).

It’s important to keep stressing that new media has many benefits and that while excessive use can be a problem, it can also have benefits. For example, one interesting study at UCLA found that computer use for older people (aged 55-76) might even increase brain function for some (here). But the overwhelming message that we are receiving from research is that too much television, gaming or computer use can be harmful for children.

From my perspective, as a research interested in children’s early learning, my sense is that we haven’t even begun to consider the questions related to this topic. For example, what is the impact of the loss of play, book reading and human interaction on children? Evidence of a general nature and developmental research, shows that adult child interaction is critical to early emotional and intellectual development. This work alone would suggest that the loss of time spent playing, talking to others, listening to stories and so on, will be detrimental. There are other related questions. Readers of this blog will be ready to ask, how much time is too much? How little time with adults is too little? It’s difficult to answer such questions but here’s are a few suggestions based on what I know of research in learning, interaction, language and communication and emerging work on new media:

Children aged 0-2

• Constant interaction with adults (preferably a parent) – singing, talking to, providing different experiences, reading to them etc.
• No TV, videos etc - this is almost impossible if there are older siblings, but there are much more important things to do for the very young child.
  

Children aged 3-5

• Shared mealtimes – most if not all.
• Lots of interaction as part of everyday life – talking with them in the car, in the kitchen, in the bath, while watching TV together.
• Planned experiences – exploring the garden, the house, the physical environment, creative play, craft, music, and introduction to computer sites for kids (together!), lots of stories read to them (at least 30 minutes a day in several blocks), ‘writing’ and drawing.
• Deliberate efforts to cultivate shared interests with your children (special TV, favourite past-times or hobbies, music, sport etc).
• Limited TV or computer use (no more than 60 minutes per day).

Children aged 6-12

• Shared mealtimes – at least 10 meals a week together (with at least one parent, preferably two if there are two at home).
• Lots of interaction as part of everyday life – debriefing after school, chatting at mealtime, planned talk (ask them questions) as part of other activities.
• Planned experiences – provide varied experiences for your children including outings, the movies together, visit the library, shop together, visit people, do some outdoor physical activity together (the pool, some sport, the park etc), develop some shared interests and hobbies – build common ground!
• Read with them and listen to their reading.
• Spend some time exploring the Internet with them and not just as part of school activities, show them how to use the Internet as a tool.
• Try to limit TV and video games to 60-90 minutes per day
  

Adolescents (aged 13+)

• Shared mealtimes – at least 6 meals per week together (with at least one parent, preferably two if there are two at home).
• Lots of interaction – make time to talk and be deliberate about it if they are reluctant. Make the effort, many teenagers find it easy to withdraw from adults, don’t let them!
• Planned activities – still try to do things together; find common interests, watch some TV together, play some sport or follow their sport, engage yourself in at least one of their interests.
• Talk about their schoolwork and have active involvement.
• Encourage and demonstrate wise use of media – don’t give them a TV for their room; avoid providing a state-of-the-art sound system in their room; don’t have a computer in their room have one that they use in a more public space.
• Open your house to their friends and get to know them as well; make your home welcoming to their friends with you as part of it.
• Try to discourage large blocks of individual time on computers, playing video games, TV and Internet surfing (2-3 hours a day is more than enough).
  

Conclusion

While there are wonderful benefits from new media (I'm enjoying one right now!), research is showing us that over-use can be harmful for children. There is a real danger that as parents lives become more busy and complicated that we will allow new media to fill spaces that previously would have been filled by family interaction. We should not allow this to happen if we value the wellbeing of our children and the quality of the relationship that we have with them.

Other posts

Washington Post article, “Media Bombardment Is Linked To Ill Effects During Childhood” here

Media Awareness Network article, “Television’s Impact on Kids” here

“TV Numbs the brain” here

My posts previous posts that address the impact of TV here

Growing up in Australia

The Australian Federal Government has funded a longitudinal research study of children from birth to eleven years of age. The project is called Growing up In Australia and aims to examine the impact of Australia's unique social and cultural environment on the next generation. It also hopes to increase our understanding of early childhood development, inform social policy debate, and help identify opportunities for early intervention and prevention strategies in policy areas concerning children. The project was launched in 2004 and is now beginning to release reports and findings. In recent weeks there has been widespread reporting of general findings relating to the first three to four years of life. This has included:

• Media reports - for example Carol Nader reported this week in major Australian newspapers on the first reports (here)
• Official research reports - these are available from the Australian Institute of Family Studies website (here) and from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services & Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) here.
  
• A series of programs on "Life at 3" years has just been launched on ABC television and premiered today (2nd October). It will continue on Thursdays at 8.30pm on ABC One (details here)

Details of the study

The study has a broad, multi-disciplinary base, draws on a nationally representative sample of children and addresses a range of research questions about family functioning, health, non-parental child-care and education. Data are being collected over seven years from two cohorts every two years. The first cohort of 5000 children aged less than 12 months in 2003/4 will be followed until they reach 6 to 7 years of age, and the second cohort comprising 5000 children aged 4 years in 2003/4 will be followed until they reach 10 or 11 years of age. Study informants include the child (when of an appropriate age) and their parents, carers and teachers.

The most recent research paper has just been released:

How well are Australian infants and children aged 4 to 5 years doing?

The report deals with:

• outcomes for children in different social circumstances;
• children's health;
• children's use of non-parental care;
• mothers' health;
• family learning environments and child outcomes.

The impact of book reading and television

The section of most interest to me is the latter and has turned up some interesting findings. Features of family learning environments that showed strong evidence of being positively associated with higher learning outcomes included the following:

• the child is read to on three or more days per week;
• there are more than 10 children's books in the home;
• the child enjoys being read to for more than 10 minutes at a time;
• the child has access to a computer in the home;
• the child has medium to high engagement in out-of-home learning activities with family members.

The findings indicated some worrying impacts from excessive television viewing. Children who watched three or more hours of television on week days or five hours or more on the weekend, were more likely to have lower outcome scores in varied categories including physical, social–emotional and learning.

The importance of the family learning environment

The study also concluded that while much of the diversity in knowledge and skills that children bring to school can be linked to social background, the differences in learning and developmental outcomes related to the family learning environment, are apparent irrespective of the social and economic circumstances of the family. This shows the significance of the family learning environment on child outcomes, something that has also been established by other researchers.

You can read this section of the report in full here.

The problems with a TV in a child's bedroom

A New York Times article written by Tara Parker-Pope has warned of the problems associated with children having a TV in their bedrooms. Key details from the article include:

• Estimates on how many American children have TVs in their bedrooms vary from 50-70%.
• There is a growing body of evidence to suggest strong associations between excessive TV viewing and numerous health problems (e.g. obesity, smoking etc).
• One study found that a TV in the bedroom increased viewing time by almost nine hours per week (increasing to 30 hours).


A leading professor of paediatrics, Leonard H. Epstein, commented that: “If it’s in the bedroom, the parents don’t even really know what the kids are watching.”

Reasons for the negative impact of TV in the bedroom?

The reasons for the impact of TV in the bedroom are still being investigated but the article points to the distraction that they cause from sleep, homework, reading etc.

However, I suspect that the reasons are more subtle than this and could include:

* reduction in the amount of family interaction time (which we know is invaluable);
* reduced physical activity outside the home;
* reduced language interaction with other children and adults (the latter is critical for language development in the preschool years);
* negative impacts on relations with parents and the associated levels of support that parents give.

In other words, I suspect that it is the impact on family relations and use of time that are the critical factors leading to the negative impact of TV in children's bedroom. There will of course be other impacts such as problems caused by uncontrolled viewing of varied television content without discussion and advice from other trusted adults. TV can be a valuable way in which parents build common ground with their children, it should not lead to alienation from them. If it does, then we can expect negative impacts and should do something about it.

Click here to read the full article from the New York Times article

Read my previous posts on problems with TV here and the need for better televison here

The need for better children's television

I didn't think I'd be doing a post on TV again quite so soon but couldn't help but notice this interesting article in today's Sydney Morning Herald. It argues quite rightly that there is a need for quality television. I'm thankful that there is some good television for children, much of which is on public broadcasting networks like the ABC in Australia and BBC in the UK. Any parent of preschool children will testify to the usefulness and importance of a limited amount of television. The article also makes some similar comments to those in my last post about the changing nature of television viewing.

In my last post I hope I didn't give the impression that television is all bad. Of course it isn't. Just two quick comments on this. First, children (and adults) learn lots of things from television and using the internet. Second, shared viewing of television (or even computer use and gaming) can be very significant for building relationships with others. Good TV can be part of the shared experience that gives parents and their children, and children and their friends some common ground on which to build positive relationships. In a sense the role that good TV plays can be very similar to good books, music and other shared experiences.

The Canadian Media Awareness Network that I mentioned in my last post has some useful thoughts on the benefits of television.

Of course, for parents, the concern is with the quality of what our children view and the need to ensure that TV and computer use doesn't become so dominant that other things suffer. Things like play outside, strong physical activity (especially for boys), human interaction and so on. This is the challenge, to ensure balance in our children's lives.

Square eyes? TV, computers & Kids

Researchers in the United Kingdom might be giving new meaning to the term 'square eyes'. They have found that British children are spending over five hours per day looking at a television screen or monitor. Rosemary Duff from the market research agency ChildWise, interviewed 1,147 children in 60 schools in England, Scotland and Wales. A report on the work published in the Guardian newspaper indicated that:

• British children spend on average 5 hours and 20 minutes per day in front of screens of one sort or another (up from 4 hrs 40 minutes five years ago).
  
• Two thirds watch TV before school and 83 per cent turn it on when they get home.
  
• Fifty eight per cent watch television during their evening meal and almost two thirds of children do so in bed before going to sleep.
  
• Boys spend 2.7 hours a day watching TV and 1.9 hours on-line, while girls spend 2.6 hours watching TV but more time on the internet - 2.1 hours a day.
  
• 80% of children have a TV in their rooms.
  
• While 80% read books in their free time, only 53% do so at least once per week and 25% daily.
  

This is not a new topic, we have known for years that children probably watch too much television. What is interesting about this recent work is the added influence of computers and the way TV and computers are pervading so much of life. While ChildWise have been conducting this survey for 14 years new insights are being gained.

The most worrying aspect of the report is that it suggests that children seem to be doing more multitasking, watching TV while they eat, fall asleep, do homework, play video games, social networking online and so on. There is also a tendency to flick between channels (especially boys) to keep up with two simultaneous shows at once. While this might sound just like children imitating their parents, it is a worrying trend.

For me, the work raises more questions than answers, including:

What impact does such extensive TV and computer use have on reading (certainly, this research suggests that increased viewing may lead to a reduction in reading)?

What impact does it have on family time and parent child interaction?

What impact does TV and Internet use have on the whole child (e.g. emotional and physical health and development)?

An excellent site that addresses some of the latter issues is the Canadian Media Awareness Network (I'll do a post on this later). This won't be my last post on this topic.