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[Pomerance] You're watching Charter's Local Edition. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm
Brad Pomerance, and our guest is Professor Elen Wartella and she is with
the University of California at Riverside
and you are an expert in an area near and dear to my heart. I have a five-year-old
and a seven-year-old - they love watching television. And you are looking at the
media's influence on children's development.
What are you finding?
[Wartella] Well... the media are quite influential is what we find. I think, I think the most
important thing for parents, what we need to tell parents,
is that you should watch the amount of time that your
children spend in front of the screen media.
American Academia of Pediatrics recommends about two hours a day for kids over two.
[Pomerance] And that means media is television. [Wartella] Right. [Pomerance] Is internet. [Wartella] Computers, that's
right. [Pomerance] Video games. [Wartella] That's right. [Pomerance] So two hours total. 0:00:58.340,0:01:00.749 That seems actually kind of high to me.
[Wartella] Well... on average children spend more time then that. They spend over
two-and-a-half, three hours, children under six. [Pomerance] To me, that is unnacceptable. [Wartella] I agree,
it's a lot of time. [Pomerance] But I can tell you as the father of five and a seven year old, it's quite
a challenge. [Wartella] It is a challenge.
The other thing that you need to do is watch what they watch too and make sure
that the content is appropriate for them.
I'm a firm believer... of the school that says it's not just the amount of
time that you spend it's what you're watching that matters. [Pomerance] Why is it though
that we see this epidemic in child... children obesity?
And a lot of it is pointed to television. Whereas,
when I was growing up, you know there was some chubby kids but not like today. [Wartella] Right.
I'm going to give you some statistics. In the 60's, about
five percent of children between six and 19 were considered obese.
By the early 2000's, that number had jumped to 16 percent and
another 15 percent are at risk for being obese. The Institute of Medicine
and the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, did an analysis of the
relationship between food marketing
and childhood obesity. [Pomerance] That's the key. [Wartella] That is absolutely the key. They found, indeed,
that children's exposure to television advertising,
for kids under 12,
was both related to their food preferences, their food choices,
their diets and most important,
to adiposity, which is another word for fatness.
[Pomerance] And what's interesting is... my girls watch the Disney Channel, which is
essentially commercial free,
but if you watch other programming targeted to children, that do you have
advertisements,
it's always this kind of high-calorie, low-nutrition
food choices. [Wartella] Exactly right. If we were if marketing
apples
and vegetables we'd have a lot less - a lot fewer - problems. The fact is, the kind of
foods that's marketed to children, are exactly what you said, they're
high-calorie, low-nutrient, full of fat and sugar, and it's really causing
havoc on our children's diets. [Pomerance] I recently interviewed Sabrina Bryan, who is one of
the Cheetah Girls, and she's got involved in an organization called the Alliance
for Healthier Generation that's focusing on
keeping kids active and making healthier choices.
What do you think about
celebrities getting involved in trying to send those positive messages? [Wartella] I think
that's terrific, you know... if... diet and
... weight is a function of both what you take in - the foods you eat - and the kind
of energy you expend and to the extent that we get kids up and moving, we get
them walking, we get them playing. It's a shame that schools don't have gyms
anymore, they don't have recess because that really helped. So, I'm very much
encouraging of that. {Pomerance] I was telling Sabrina that... one of the reasons I enjoy
her
series of films, the Cheetah Girls, is when my girls watch it, they're dancing. So,
at least they are moving.
Professor, if you were to offer our parents, who are watching right now, some
tips about interacting with the media
and their children, what would you offer? [Wartella] Well first of all, to pay attention
to what kind of media your children are attending to.
For really young children under the age of six,
again, limit screen time to at least two hours a day. The American Academy of
Pediatrics recommends no child under two in front of a screen. [Pomerance] Wow. [Wartella] That sounds
a little harsh, I know, for some parents, that's right. Particularly with baby media.
but watch what how much time spending and watch what they watch, make sure it's
age appropriate. [Pomerance] Professor, thank you so much for joining us. Such important and
invaluable information.
[Wartella] Nice to be here. [Pomerance] For Charter's Local Edition, I'm Brad Pomerance!