Eh-Oh!   American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no TV for children under two years!

No wonder the Teletubbies talk funny!

 http://www.aap.org/advocacy/mediamatters.htm

A new policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics has made clear what many parents have suspected for a long time: Television is bad for young children. In the August issue of the Academy's journal Pediatrics the report's authors write: "Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years." It continues: "While certain television programmes 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 for healthy brain growth and development of appropriate social, emotional and cognitive skills." The Academy also recommends that viewing for older children be limited to two hours a day.
Media commentators seemed unable to come to grips with the simplicity and directness of the Academy's message. Many were left clinging to their usual advice that 'moderation is best'. Anne Woods, producer of the Teletubbies, tried to reassure parents that watching her programme was somehow an interactive experience for children, and the programme's US marketer, Kenn Viselman, dismissed the advice of the 55,000 doctors as "a bunch of malarky".

But the Academy is not going away. They have also advised their members to ask parents about "media history" when treating eating disorders and obesity. Their report will add to concerns raised in 1996 by a study in Manchester showing that exposure to television caused delayed acquisition of language in toddlers. Eh-oh!

Millions of people don't watch TV and we're having a great time!

What are you missing? If you're like most people in Britain or America, you’re spending four hours every day staring at a piece of furniture. Television eats up half the time you are not working or sleeping - ten years for the average person. All those things you want to be: a lover, a parent, a scholar, a wild teenager or a pillar of the community - when are you going to do all that? TV takes away your real life.

White Dot magazine is published quarterly in Chicago and Brighton. We seek to answer that ridiculous question: "What do you do if you don't watch TV?" Because we are also a campaign against the television industry, we keep an eye on what it does. We have also written the anti-TV survival guide, Get A Life, published in Britain by Bloomsbury Publishing. Find out why the Guardian said it "hums like a little intellectual buzz saw, slicing through the pretensions of all those who people the plastic box" and called it "the finest rant available between hardcovers"!

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