08/22/2008

France Bans TV Shows for Babies

A member of the leadership team of Working Forum for Men in Early Childhood Education, Ron Blatz from Manitoba, Canada, shared this MSNBC story:

"France's broadcast authority has banned French channels from airing TV shows aimed at children under 3 years old, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age. The High Audiovisual Council, in a ruling published Wednesday, said it wanted to 'protect children under 3 from the effects of television.'

"....France's minister for culture and communication, Christine Albanel, issued a 'cry of alarm' to parents in June about channels dedicated 24 hours a day to baby-targeted programming. In a newspaper interview, she called them 'a danger' and urged parents not to use them to help their children get to sleep. She was referring to two foreign channels that can be seen in France on cable television, BabyFirstTV and Baby TV.

"....The ruling cites health experts as saying that interaction with other people is crucial to early child development. 'Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens,' the ruling said.

"When BabyFirstTV first aired in the United States in 2006, it escalated an already heated national debate. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said babies should be kept away from television altogether. BabyFirstTV and other companies say their products are designed to be watched by babies and parents together in an interactive manner. Critics say such channels are used as a baby sitter."

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