Study: Media Exposure Harming Kids' Health

By Hugh C. McBride

History tells us that the first regularly scheduled television broadcast in U.S. history occurred on July 2, 1928, when station W3XK began beaming silhouetted images to receivers in the Wheaton, Maryland area. No one knows the name of the first mother to tell her son, "You're spending too much time staring at that thing - now get off the couch, go outside, and get some exercise!" but odds are that that seminal event occurred before noon the following day.

Eighty years later, researchers from the nonprofit advocacy group Common Sense Media (CSM) have released a report telling us what every good son and daughter should already know: Mom, it turns out, was right all along.

Increasing Media = Declining Health
On Dec. 2, 2008, CSM released Media and Child and Adolescent Health: A Systematic Review, a report that was described by its lead author, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health, as "the first ever comprehensive evaluation of the many ways that media impacts children's physical health."

The CSM-sponsored study analyzed data that had been collected during 173 previous studies over the past 30 years in an attempt to establish connections between youth media exposure and rates of tobacco use, sexual behavior, obesity, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, academic performance, and the use of drugs and alcohol.

In a press release that announced the study's publication, Emanuel indicated that his team's findings should serve as a stark warning to parents who are raising children in an increasingly media-saturated society.

"The results clearly show that there is a strong correlation between media exposure and long-term negative health effects to children," he said. "This study provides an important jumping-off point for future research that should explore both the effects of traditional media content and that of digital media - such as video games, the Internet, and cell phones - which kids are using today with more frequency."

The San Francisco Chronicle posted an online article that highlighted some of the CSM study's more troubling findings:

• In 80 percent of the studies, greater media exposure is associated with negative health outcomes for children and adolescents. The strongest relationship was found between media and obesity.
• Of the 73 studies that examined the relationship between screen time and childhood obesity, 86 percent revealed a strong relationship between increased screen time and obesity.
• Of the 14 articles evaluating media and sexual behavior, 93 percent found that children with greater media exposure have sex earlier.
• Most kids today spend nearly 45 hours per week with media, compared to 17 hours with parents and 30 hours in school.

A Call to Action
In an interview that appeared Dec. 4 on the Time magazine website, CSM's founder, Stanford University professor James Steyer, said that the study indicates that parents need to be more actively vigilant concerning their children's ever-increasing media consumption:

Parents are the first line of defense. You have to be involved in your kids' media lives today, just like you go to their parent-teacher conferences, like you help them with your homework. The average kid spends almost 7 hours a day consuming some sort of media, so you have to be involved in setting clear limits and balanced amounts of time that kids can spend with different forms of media. That's as true for video games and cell phones as it is for TV and movies.

Kids get so many values and messages from media. As a parent, you've got to have a dialogue with them about that. Whether you're talking about sex or violence or commercialism, a lot of the messages kids are getting come from the media. So you have to have an open dialogue. And you have to be a savvy media consumer yourself, so you know what they're experiencing.

Common Sense Media offers the following three tips to help parents ensure that their children are having the healthiest possible relationship with media:

1. Use Media Together - Watch television with your children, educate yourself about the types of music they are listening to, and keep the computer in an easily observed location (such as the family room). Staying engaged in your children's media use will allow you to discuss potential concerns before they morph into big problems.
2. Be a Role Model - Remember, your actions are much more influential than your words are. If your kids know that you spend hours yourself surfing the net, sending messages from your BlackBerry, or sitting transfixed in front of the television, they're much more likely to engage in these behaviors themselves.
3. Watch the Clock - As with most of life's challenges, when it comes to media consumption, the most important word to remember is "moderation." Banning access to the online world won't keep your kids safe - it will just encourage them to hide their actions. Instead, establish (and enforce) time limits for watching television, texting friends, or playing video games. As an added incentive, participate in healthy offline family activities such as board games, walks, or arts and crafts projects.

And if you have the chance, call your mom and tell her you finally realize how right she was.