Center on Media and Child Health

Reaction to the Australian Screen-Time Recommendations

CMCH asked Australian author Tania Andrusiak to be a guest blogger and give us the inside scoop on how people are reacting to the Australian government's screen time recommendations.  Tania is the author of Adproofing Your Kids: Raising critical thinkers in a media-saturated world.

Get Up and Grow, the new parenting guidelines aimed at fostering healthy habits in children, were released last week by the Australian government. Developed in conjunction with Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital, these are the first official recommendations to address children’s screen time: none at all for kids under age two, and a maximum of one hour per day for those aged two to five.

But here’s the rub: these guidelines fly in the face of real screen habits. Australian children under four watch a daily average of 154 minutes of free-to-air TV, or 194 minutes of cable TV – with four-month-olds exposed to around 44 minutes. Not surprisingly, this made for some healthy debate.

Patricia Edgar, founding director of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation suggested the guidelines reflected a lack of understanding about what really went on in the lives of Australian children. This sentiment echoed across many parenting message boards, with resentment over the government’s perceived intrusion into the right to parent as we wish. However, an equal amount felt that limiting young children’s screen time was simple commonsense, and quite a few were compelled to seek out further information.

And perhaps raising awareness is where ‘Get Up and Grow’ will make its biggest impact. While most forum participants agreed that TV limited children’s socialisation, it was clear that few were aware of the problems these guidelines were created to address: the impact on young children’s language development, attention span and active play. Only a handful identified that TV affects the ability of a caregiver to attend to children, or that kids routinely see images they find confusing, upsetting and scary. And the idea that TV made it hard for kids to concentrate on playing had some clearly puzzled: weren’t they just ‘multitasking’?

Kudos to the Rudd Government for introducing evidence-based parenting into discussions around children’s screen time. Often it’s hard to know what the ‘right amount’ is – especially when modern life, the habits of others and our children’s unique ability to get more than they need seem to thwart our efforts. While the success of ‘Get Up and Grow’ remains to be seen, at least it’s got parents talking, and that’s got to be a good thing.

I’ll leave the last thought to Katey, mother of a nine-month-old: "I cannot imagine that the TV could give my child more than I do. It cannot take her outside to play on the grass, cannot speak directly to her, cannot hold her while she pats a cat or a dog or a sheep, cannot respond to her babbling, cannot play the music she likes, cannot teach her the name of something she is pointing at." 

If only the Rudd Government had put it so eloquently.

To read more from Tania, check out her blog and Twitter stream!

AAP Advocates for Safer Media and Impact of Music

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just released two new policy statements, “Media Violence,” and “Impact of Music, Music Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth.” The authors include recommendations for parents and pediatricians to take an active role in monitoring and controlling what their children are watching and listening to. Here are some of the recommendations:

Media Violence:

• Ask at least two media-related questions at each well-child visit: how much TV is the child watching, and is there a TV or Internet connection in the bedroom? 
• When heavy media usage is detected, evaluate the child for aggressive behaviors, fears, or sleep disturbances.
• Suggest alternatives to media, such as sports, interactive play, and reading.
• Encourage parents to follow the AAP recommendations on media use, including prohibiting media in bedrooms and limiting screen time to one to two hours a day, and providing no screen media at all for infants and toddlers under two years old. 

Impact of Music:

• Become familiar with the role of music in the lives of children and adolescents and identify music preferences that could be clues to emotional conflict or problems.
• Become familiar with the literature linking music to behavioral problems.
• Encourage parents to take an active role in monitoring their youngsters' music and music video watching.
• Parents and the public should be aware of and use the music industry's parental advisory warning of explicit content.

Research Toolbox: Upcoming Conferences

Save the dates! To help you keep track of conference, here is a list of upcoming events that may be of interest:

Conferences  Updated!

• National Communication Association, 95th Annual Convention, November 12-15, 2009, Chicago, Illinois.

• Modern Brains: Enhancing Memory and Performance in This Distracting Digital Age, November 20–22, 2009 , Boston, MA.

• Children, Youth and Media Conference 2009, November 19, 2009, Toronto, Canada.

• Excellence in Paediatrics,  December 3-6, 2009, Florence, Italy.

• Consuming Kids Summit - Market Values, Human Values, and the Lives of Children, April 8-10, 2010, Boston, MA.

• World Summit on Media for Children and Youth, June 14-18, 2010, Karlstad, Sweden.

• International Communication Association- Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural and Technological Changes, June 22-26, 2010, Singapore.

Call for Papers

• 2010 International Communication Association- Children, Adolescent and media session papers submission to Amy Jordan by November 6, 2009.

Using Digital Games to Improve Children's Learning and Health

How can we best use digital games to improve children's learning and health?  A new report entitled Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children's learning and health, by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, tackles this question with renewed vigor.

Digital games have been shown to aid in learning in particular contexts, but the question of how far this potential goes has yet to be fully explored. For that reason, in addition to discussing specific games that encourage physical health, development of healthy long-term habits, and disease management, the report calls for strategic investment in this field to maximize the potential of this technology.

The report also outlines a strategy of research and development, innovative partnerships, support for the adults who guide children's digital lives, modernization of public media, and increased public dialogue about digital media.

New Legislation Regulates Tobacco Marketing

This morning, President Obama signed legislation that gives the FDA the ability to regulate tobacco marketing.  They are expected to take a number of measures to reduce tobacco advertising to youth:

• Most cigarette ads will be limited to black-and-white text only (which may face free-speech challenges)
• Outdoor advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds is banned (though research shows that there is still a lot of advertising in neighborhoods near these schools)
• Tobacco-brand sponsorships of sports and entertainment events will be stopped (research shows that teens who watched a tobacco-sponsored sports event were more likely to experiment with tobacco)

Walk Like a Mediatrician

Last Sunday CMCH represented Ask the Mediatrician^SM at the NSTAR Walk for Children's Hospital Boston.  Though it poured in the morning, the weather cleared up for their 7 mile walk and all had a good time while talking up our new service!  Have you got a question for The Mediatrician^SM?  Go ahead and ask! 

If you didn't get a chance to donate to our efforts but would still like to, please click here.

The CMCH Team including Dr. Michael Rich -- The Mediatrician^SM himself (holding sign) and CMCH staff Karen Fisher, Dr. Dafna Lemish, Lauren Rubenzahl, and Dr. Ariel Chernin. 
 

Q: What do you get when you cross a Hollywood filmmaker with a pediatrician?

A: The Mediatrician^SM

Q:  How do I deal with inappropriate commercials during sports TV?

Q:  My 2 year old was scared by a movie, what do I do?

Q:  How much TV is too much TV?

From cyberbullying and violent video games to social networking and sexting, parents are overwhelmed by the new media environment and how it affects their children. To help parents navigate this new and changing landscape, CMCH is excited to announce the launch of Ask the Mediatrician ^SM.

Pediatrician, former Hollywood producer, parent, and CMCH founder Dr. Michael Rich
turns research-based recommendations into action steps parents can take in order to make media a positive and healthful encounter for their families.   

Also, check out our new and improved homepage!

Using Cell Phones to Learn about Sex

A new text service offers teens a way to ask questions about sex that they otherwise might feel too embarrassed to ask. The Birds & Bees Text Line, based out of the Adolescent Pregnancy Campaign of North Carolina, does not offer medical advice but does answer questions like, "What are the symptoms of gonorrhea?" or "Where can I get condoms?"

Although it can only accept texts from phones within the state, this service is one of many currently experimenting with using text messages to communicate health information to youth. Another is SEXINFO in San Francisco, whose work is similar to that of The Birds & Bees.

For those living outside of North Carolina, other private, teen-friendly resources for questions about sex include the Center for Young Women's Health, Scarleteen and Go Ask Alice.

Save the Dates!

Here is a list of upcoming conferences that may be of interest:

Games for Health Conference 2009, Boston, MA, June 10-12.

• The Games for Health Project presents its fifth annual conference exploring how game technologies, tradecraft, and talent can contribute to breakthroughs in health & healthcare.

Games + Learning +Society Conference 5.0, Madison, WI, June 10-12.

• This conference will feature substantive discussion and collaboration among academics, designers, and educators interested in how video games, commercial and otherwise, can enhance learning, culture, and education.

2009 NAMLE National Conference, Detroit, MI, August 1-4.

• This year's conference will host more than sixty events, including keynotes, workshops, screenings, special interest caucuses and roundtable discussions. Among the special events is the launch of the new Journal of Media Literacy Education, the Modern Media Makers (M3) production camp for high school students, and a celebration of Motown’s 50th anniversary.

American Sociological Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, August 8-11.

• This conference invites you to consider the significance of these changing and contradictory understandings of community.

International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) 9th World Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 28-30.

• This conference will focus on exploring issues such as private lives, public issues, and global perspectives on adolescent sexual health.

Preventing Teen Pregnancy

Wednesday May 6 is this year's National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The goal of this day is to "help teens think carefully about sex and contraception, the possibility of pregnancy, and the lifelong challenges of being a parent,” both through events held around the country and through an online quiz that teens can take throughout the month of May.

In the past few years, research has found that youth who experience "high levels of exposure to television programs that contain sexual content are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy" as their peers who are exposed to low levels. Teen pregnancies are also becoming increasingly visible in media--often without any reference to the decisions that came before or the consequences that come after.

For information that adults can use to address this issue, see Managing the Media Monster. For pregnancy-prevention information geared toward teens, visit It's Your Sex Life. It offers information on topics like types of contraception that do and don't work, information about using condoms correctly, and prevention of unintended pregnancy.