Media content influences the understanding and behavior of everyone who views it to some degree or another. But because they are just beginning to experience the world and are still in a critical stage of development, infants and toddlers are particularly susceptible to such stimulation. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that children under age two should be kept away from television altogether.

A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that children are consuming media in greater numbers than ever before; and alarmingly, such consumption is occurring at younger and younger ages.

The study found that 83% of children from six months to six years old use "screen media" (television, computers and video games) for an average of two hours every day. What is particularly disturbing is that 61% of babies under age two watch television – 43% of them every day. So prevalent has media usage for babies and toddlers become that 40% of them can turn on the television and change channels using a remote control without parental assistance. (Kaiser Family Foundation study, May 2006)

Predictably, media companies are moving to capitalize on this trend by targeting programming specifically at toddlers and babies. Previous Culture Watch columns have documented the increased marketing of videos and DVDs aimed at infants, such as the controversial Sesame Beginnings series, which was opposed by many child development physicians and psychologists.  Then, such media had to be purchased separately by parents. But now, a trend is emerging towards ongoing TV programming aimed specifically at infants.

"Sesame Street has opened a Pandora's box by legitimizing the idea that TV needs to be developed for this demographic…We don't want to make TV the default entertainer for children." -- pediatrician Donald Shifrin, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications, which studies television and children  (AP, May 11, 2006)

KIDS Sprout, a cable and satellite network owned jointly by PBS, Sesame Workshop, Comcast and HIT Entertainment, now features programming aimed at 2- to 5-year-olds. One recently-developed program, The Good Night Show, is intended for children to watch before bed. Many child psychologists recommend that bedtime be used for parent-child bonding such as reading bedtime stories; but such recommendations do not influence KIDS Sprout's management: 

"When a kid says, 'Can I just watch one more show?' the parent can say, 'Of course you can.'" -- Andrew Beecham, senior vice president of programming for KIDS Sprout (AP, May 8, 2006)

Also apparently undaunted by the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation, a new 24-hour television network designed specifically for babies premiered in May. Called BabyFirstTV, the network is available on satellite's DirecTV and plans an expansion to cable TV in the near future. One of BabyFirstTV's principal shareholders is Regency Enterprises, a film and television production company and partner of Fox Entertainment. Among Regency's other projects are a videogame based on the film Fight Club, which allows a first-person player to brutally beat up others, and movies like Natural Born Killers and the vile Tom Green "comedy" Freddy Got Fingered.

While much of BabyFirstTV's content will be original, the network also has lucrative arrangements with various DVD companies, such as Brainy Baby and First Impressions, to provide some of its programming.  BabyFirst TV also has an agreement with Sterling Publishing, a subsidiary of the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain, to use selected children's books in a "Story Time" program. BabyFirstTV also plans to be available in Spanish by the end of 2006. (AP, May 11, 2006)

While the educational quality of such DVD productions is frequently touted by their manufacturers, BabyFirstTV makes no claim that its programs will make babies smarter – a view echoed by the experience of parents and media observers.

"I have a five-year-old, and she was brought up partly on these "Baby Einstein" videos… What she's learned is how to watch TV. She wants to watch as much as we will let her. Isn't that ultimately what BabyFirst teaches kids, that they like parking themselves in front of the tube?" – media critic Bob Garfield (On the Media.org, May 26, 2006)

The promoters of BabyFirstTV's marketers are claiming, however, that the network will help infant's development by giving parents and babies opportunities to watch together and interact with one another – a claim viewed with skepticism by child development physicians.

"Experience tells anyone that it's not going to be used that way…[they] are basically letting parents off the hook from their guilt by saying, 'This is educational,' so parents can justify it to themselves." -- Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston (AP, May 11, 2006)

Despite their rhetoric about providing children with opportunities for "interactivity," the marketers of BabyFirst TV appear to be less concerned about their network's possible effect on child development than about its potential for financial gain. When asked whether parents might simply use the new channel as a baby sitter, a BabyFirst executive responded with cynical indifference:

"We could speculate as much as we like about what parents should do…The fact of life is that babies are already watching TV." -- Sharon Rechter, BabyFirstTV's executive vice president for business development and marketing (AP, May 11, 2006)

We live in a media-dominated culture and such domination is almost impossible to escape. While it is true that some media do have beneficial effects for older children, it is also true that babies under the age of two years are in their most formative years and are potentially the most heavily influenced by media content which they view. Infancy is a time for children to bond with and receive love and guidance from those most important to them  -- not to be subjected to the influences of others in the media, however well-intentioned. The PTC urges parents to view programming aimed at children, toddlers and infants with skepticism…because childhood only comes once.

"If the child is in control of either the TV or the computer, there are a lot of arguments to suggest that this is not only not going to make them smarter, but it might habituate them to become a stimulus addict and, secondly, deprive them of some of the activities they really need to get smarter." -- educational psychologist Jane Healy, author of the book Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds — And What We Can Do About It. (USA Today, August 22, 2005)

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