Threats to Girlhood
Threats to Girlhood
Babies and toddlers lose an average of 52 minutes of creative play for every hour of television they consume.16
sion programming, researchers at Ithaca College found that relationally aggressive characters were only punished in 50 of the 2,628 instances.20V viewing among kids is at an eight-year high.
Creative play helps nurture and develop skills that are necessary for academic, professional, and social success throughout a child’s life. Creative play helps foster proactive problem-solving skills, critical and independent thinking, empathy and the ability to relate to others, the ability to work well with others, and the ability to reflect on and learn from life experiences.17
1/3 of US households with toddlers under 3 leave the TV on most or all the time.22
Studies reveal that the more television a child watches between birth and three years of age, the more likely they are to bully others in grade school and score lower than average on IQ and academic tests.18 Preschoolers have not yet developed the cognitive abilities necessary to connect the lesson at the end of a 30-minute television program to the conflict developed during the program, instead preschoolers learn from every social interaction depicted on television. As a result, educational television programs that construct social/ relational conflict in order to teach a lesson at the end of the program actually cause preschool girls to become more relationally aggressive.19 96% of all children’s television programming contains verbal insults and put-downs. After viewing 2,628 relationally aggressive exchanges during children’s televi16 Vandewater, Elizabeth A.’ Bickham, David S.; and June H. Lee. “Time Well Spent? Relating Television Use to Children’s Free-Time Activities.” Pediatrics 117, no 2 (2006). p.181-91. 17 Susan Linn. “The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World.” New York: The New P., 2008. p.11-23. 18 Linn, Susan. “The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World.” New York: The New P., 2008. p. 49. 19 Ostrov, J. M., Gentile, D. A., & Crick, N. R. (2006). Media Exposure, Aggression and Prosocial Behavior During Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study. Social Development, 15, p. 612-627. 7
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40% of 3-month-olds in the US watch TV regularly.23 19% of American infants under 12 months have a television in their bedroom.24 2 to 5 year olds in the US spend an average of 32 hours a week watching television.25 The average American child “has ‘spent the equivalent of three years in the tutelage of the family television set’ by the time they reach first grade.”26 While the average Australian child watches 17.5 hours of television each week, 20% of Australian children actually watch more than 30 hours a week.27 20 Bronson, Po; and Ashley Merrymen. “NurtureShock.” New York: Twelve, 2009. p.182. 21 McDonough, Patricia. “TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High.” Nielson Wire, October 26, 2009. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/tvviewing-among-kids-at-an-eight-year-high/ 22 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. “The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents.” Wednesday, May 24, 2006, Washington, D.C. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia052406pkg.cfm 23 Barrett, Jennifer. “Study: 40 percent of 3-month-olds watch TV regularly.” The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah: May 7, 2007. http://article.wn.com/view/2007/05/08/ Study_40_percent_of_3montholds_watch_TV_regularly/ 24 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation “The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Their Parents.” Wednesday, May 24, 2006, Washington, D.C. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia052406pkg.cfm 25 McDonough, Patricia. “TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High.” Nielson Wire, October 26, 2009. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/tvviewing-among-kids-at-an-eight-year-high/ 26 Sharon Beder, Wendy Varney, and Richard Gosden. “This Little Kiddy Went to Market: the Corporate Capture of Childhood.” New York: Pluto P., 2009. p. 8. 27 Sharon Beder, Wendy Varney, and Richard Gosden. “This Little Kiddy Went to Market: the Corporate Capture of Childhood.” New York: Pluto P., 2009. p. 8. 8