Media Use by Children Younger Than 2 Years

Abstract

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement addressing media use in children. The purpose of that statement was to educate parents about the effects that media—both the amount and the content—may have on children. In one part of that statement, the AAP recommended that “pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of two years.” The wording of the policy specifically discouraged media use in this age group, although it is frequently misquoted by media outlets as no media exposure in this age group. The AAP believed that there were significantly more potential negative effects of media than positive ones for this age group and, thus, advised families to thoughtfully consider media use for infants. This policy statement reaffirms the 1999 statement with respect to media use in infants and children younger than 2 years and provides updated research findings to support it. This statement addresses (1) the lack of evidence supporting educational or developmental benefits for media use by children younger than 2 years, (2) the potential adverse health and developmental effects of media use by children younger than 2 years, and (3) adverse effects of parental media use (background media) on children younger than 2 years.

The Nature and Predictive Value of Mothers' Beliefs Regarding Infants' and Toddlers' TV/Video Viewing: Applying the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction

“…Though concerned parties like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have already directed messages at parents to attempt to reduce early childhood TV/video exposure (see AAP, 1999;2011), such messages have been designed and disseminated without knowledge of many of the salient maternal beliefs examined in the present study. By uncovering salient, yet previously unexplored beliefs among American mothers about infant/toddler TV/video use, this study highlights the importance of using theory to guide campaign design and evaluation.…”

“…The second operationalization of intention was included because relevant policy discussions have framed the behavior in this way. That is, the AAP and others advocate no screen media exposure at all for children before the age of two years (AAP, 2011). Despite the lack of direct correspondence with the other IM survey items (which frame the target behavior around children viewing “more than an hour a day at least several days each week”), understanding the ability for mothers’ behavioral beliefs to also predict their intentions to keep their children from viewing any TV/videos was also of interest.…”

“…The bulk of evidence accumulated since that time suggests limited or no cognitive or educational benefits of commercially available TV/videos for very young children, particularly in comparison to their learning from information presented in live, social interactions (Courage & Setliff, 2010; Krcmar, 2010). This pattern in findings, coupled with concerns that viewing time would displace babies’ time spent in more beneficial activities, has spurred health departments from the United States, Australia, and Canada to officially discourage screen media use with children under two years of age (AAP, 2011; ADHA, 2011; Lipnowski & LeBlanc, 2012; Sigman, 2012). Additionally, in 2008 the French High Audiovisual Council banned French television channels from airing programming targeting children under age three (Alleyne, 2008).…”

Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood

“…The use of touch-screen devices has, up to now, mainly been studied in the context of media use in general (e.g., [1]). These investigations are marked by a debate regarding the potentially noxious effects of passive exposure to television, particularly for children under 2 years of age (e.g., [2]). In this literature, one concern relates to frequency of use, as correlational analyses suggest that for every hour children under 2 years of age spend watching TV, they spend about 50 minutes less interacting with their parents and about 20 minutes less in creative play [3].…”

“…It is conceivable that different cultures integrate novel technologies in different ways. Although they need not be viewed as representative of their cultures, compare, for example, the somewhat divergent recommendations on media use in early childhood proposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics [2] and the French Academy of Sciences [14]. All of the data we report on was collected in France.…”