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Strollerderby
When the American Academy of Pediatrics originally advised against TV for kids under 2 in 1999, they were doing so based on the Precautionary Principle: the idea that this might cause harm and had no known benefits. Their policy was met with what pediatrician Ari Brown describes as “a lot of screaming”. The resistance came from the industry— people who were creating media for babies and toddlers—but it also came from parents, who were dependent on the TV to give them a break from active parenting so they could take care of other things.
People complained, where’s the harm? People also didn’t take the recommendations very seriously, as it’s now estimated that 90% of kids under 2 watch 1 to 2 hours of television a day.
Those early recommendations were based on limited research. But by now, the AAP has had more than a decade to review over 50 studies on the effects of television on small children. And the results have only strengthened their original position. Their new policy, released today, unequivocally advises against ANY screen time for babies and toddlers under age 2.
What’s so bad about screens?
We all know Thomas the Tank Engine, right? Cute little train with a smiley face? If you have kids under five, he’s probably been zooming around your living room for a couple of years as a character on TV, in books, printed on your kids’ pyjamas and, oh yeah, an actual toy train set.
Kids love trains. Thomas is a train. Ergo, kids love Thomas. That’s pretty straightforward.
But how well do parents really know Thomas and his friends? Not well enough, says Jessica Roake on Slate. Underneath their perky exterior lies a spooky Imperialist agenda.
It seems that the recent refund offer by Disney was the spark that reignited the flame of a decades-old controversy: Is television harmful to tots? Are we a society of lazy, selfish parents that use the screen as a live-in babysitter? And if so, are we creating a society of mush-brained mutants that call the remote “Daddy”?
Julia Pimsleur Levine, mother of 2 and creator of Little Pim, an educational foreign-language DVD series for the toddler set, has weighed in with the following letter:
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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