Babies MUST be Kept Away from TV Until Age 3 At Least

By Ina Woolcott

It is a guilty secret for many exhausted parent(s) - the distracting power of cartoons and kids TV programs. The typical British 11 to 15 year old sits in front of a TV or computer screen seven and a half hours a day. TVs are being employed as surrogate babysitter's because our culture has created such an economic challenge that the resources are frequently not available to provide an optimal parenting setting.

Addressing MPs and peers at a Westminster meeting Dr Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and member of the Institute of Biology, said: "Between the ages of nought and three, particularly when children are acquiring language, their brains are going through rapid development and are being physically shaped, like a piece of clay, in response to what they are exposed to. It's called structural neuroplasticity."

"Key stages of development are language acquisition and social skills and if they're displaced at this stage, they may be irreplaceable." Dr Sigman said exposing children to fast moving images at a very young age for long periods of time may inhibit their ability to sustain attention. He also said that children, who were left for long periods with only a screen to interact with, not only had less time to speak to adults but also failed to develop social skills.

Sigman told MPs at the conference organised by the pressure group Mediawatch-UK: "I was told by the head of BBC children's TV (Richard Deverell) that TV 'helps children get interested in the outside world'. The world around them gets them interested in the outside world! We are told children need electronic entertainment or they get bored. It is not true. Children have an infinite ability to entertain themselves which television seems to erode. What children are exposed to under the age of seven, and particularly under the age of three, is of paramount importance. It's really the under threes we're most concerned about and dramatically limiting the amount watched between three and seven."

A BBC spokesman commented "We agree that parents should monitor what and how much TV their children watch. The BBC does not make programmes for children younger than two and our pre-school programmes are made with children's development in mind."

Dr Sigman suggests
Children under 3: no TV
Ages 3-7: 30 minutes to 1 hour a day
Seven to 12: 1 hour a day
12 to 15: 1 and a half hours a day
16+: 2 hours

Also:

Allowing children under the age of 3 to watch television can impair their linguistic and social development.

It can also put them at risk of health problems including attention-deficit disorder, autism and obesity. There is at least one study that suggests that early exposure to TV can be a trigger for autism.

Before children reach age 3, children's brains go through rapid development and are being physically shaped in response to whatever they are exposed to. Exposing children to fast moving images for long periods at this stage in their life can inhibit their ability to sustain attention, and hinder their development of social skills.

There is research that suggests that television can also cause irregular sleep patterns for infants and toddlers. It also decreases their resting metabolic rate, which compounds the physiological problems that come with lack of exercise.

Older Children watching TV, often consume high calorie/high fat snack foods and drinks, and watch adverts for fast food, all of which may encourage more eating!

Experts already label television as the number one leisure activity of most school age children

As a conscientious parent, please consider all the health issues involved with over exposure to TV, such as, childhood obesity and a lack of exercise, TV's will change your child's views and food choices , make your kids more materialistic, cause your children to go into more debt as adults, cause your children to be more aggressive and violent, lead to smoking, increase your child's risk of becoming seriously injured.