If you could, would
you keep your child away from second-hand smoke? Of course
you would. Everyone knows second-hand smoke causes cancer.
We've got scientific proof. It worked the same way with
seat belts, car seats, immunizations and a host of other
devices and methods we use to protect our children from
a wide array of dangers.
But most parents don't do much to protect their children
from media. And yet, as we're coming to see, media have
a tremendous impact on growing children. For instance, the
link between violent video games and real-life aggression
is backed by stronger science than the studies showing that
second-hand smoke causes cancer.
In the last few years, we've seen a growing childhood obesity
epidemic and a related surge in the number of kids who develop
Type 2 diabetes. The amount of physical activity kids engage
in is way below the amount documented even a few years ago.
And we've seen a swelling in the ranks of kids with attention
disorders, as well as long list of initial reports suggesting
as of yet unquantified patterns of anti-social behavior
and addictive tendencies. When you put all of these problems
together you have to admit: we are in the midst of a new
kind of public health crisis.
A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that
the average kid, by multi-tasking, consumes nearly six and
a half hours of media every day. That's more time
than adults spend at a 40-hour per week job. As the new
report puts it, that many hours "makes it plain that
the potential of media to impact virtually every aspect
of young people's lives cannot be ignored."
The list of problems related to media use goes on and on.
In the last year I've become aware of a nationwide surge
in individual reports of video game addiction-a problem
that could have huge implications. The teachers I meet with
all across the country tell me every year it is more and
more difficult to keep their students on task. The number
of school shootings seems to increase every year. I could
go on.
A series of other reports over the last year convinces me
more than ever we need to take media use as seriously as
we take other public health issues. At the same time that
the amount of major problems related to media have been
piling up, so have the reports showing infants' media use
is on the rise. Unless we make some changes, the problems
are only going to get worse.
Put bluntly, I think we're on the verge of creating a nation
of screen addicts.
As I've always said, the media are powerful so we have the
choice to reap enormous benefits or suffer lasting harm.
Making that choice is a matter of awareness and moderation.
But, if we raise a generation who can't say no to the screen,
we risk a world where we have no choice at all.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute
on Media and the Family (www.mediafamily.org).
His latest book is Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival
Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen.
Our
media culture is changing how kids learn.
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