Morning Coffee: Stop the Brainwashing of Children!

July 13, 2004

Stop the Brainwashing of Children!

http://www.commercialexploitation.com/

Childhood obesity, dental problems, behavioral problems, eating disorders, literacy, ADHD... if you could do one thing to make headway in fighting against these blights, wouldn't you do it? Well. Get off of your ass and help kids get off of their asses!

Support Senator Harkin's efforts to help keep advertisers off of kids

Under current law, it is more difficult to regulate advertising to children than to adults! The HeLP America Act (S. 2558) is an important step towards fixing this problem. By restoring the FTC’s authority to control children’s advertising, we will have the regulatory structure needed to fight back against unchecked advertisers.

Children influence $500 billion in spending per year. As a result, they are bombarded with commercials for products, including violent toys and junk food.
Corporations spend more than $12 billion a year marketing to children – double the amount spent 10 years ago.
Children consume almost 40 hours of media a week and see over 40,000 commercials a year on television alone.
Food commercials account for most TV advertising during children's peak viewing hours.
Childhood obesity and eating disorders are now major public health problems.
Forty percent of fifth grade girls report dieting. Discontent about body image correlates to how often girls read fashion magazines.
Children play less creatively with toys "spun off" from TV and other media. Nevertheless, such toys are the most frequently advertised and best-selling.
The United States regulates advertising to children less than most other democracies.

Posted by sciencegrrl at July 13, 2004 10:26 PM

Comments

These blights can largely be avoided if you have parents who don't blithely let kids give in to everything they see in the commercials, or who prevent them from seeing too many of them in the first place! It is parents' responsibility to raise their kids, not the television's!

Stop the Blaming of Everybody Else for Your Children's Problems and Start Acting Like a Parent!

Posted by: Jayfest at July 16, 2004 05:42 PM

Well, the person who gave the talk i saw quoted research that showed that before the age of eight children are UNABLE to understand persusive intent of advertising. She said the PET study results will be coming along soon.

She works up at the Harvard Medical School not far form here. i may go offer to take her to lunch so that i can ask her more about these studies.

Posted by: sciencegrrl at July 17, 2004 09:07 AM

OK, then they just shouldn't be watching so many harmful ads. There is plenty of television for kids that has NO advertising (like PBS or HBO Family) or closely monitored advertising (like Nick or Disney), not to mention DVDs or videos. Now if you want to talk about attention-deficiency, I think quickly-edited music videos and TV shows and video games may be a big factor there. I agree you can't stop all of it without throwing away the TV, but a conscientious parent can certainly limit this stuff, especially if kids start to exhibit symptoms. But I do admit that there are probably many parents out there who really have no idea what kind of potential harm can be done if they don't exercise some moderation on their kids' behalf.

Posted by: jayfest at July 19, 2004 05:28 PM