Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Children’s TV ‘is linked to cancer, autism, dementia’
Study shows ill-effects of TV more wide-ranging than initially thought
Quantity of TV and age of children viewing key elements of study
Time in front of computer screens also part of problem
Key quote
“It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring.” - DR ARIC SIGMAN
Story in full IT HAS long been blamed for creating a nation of couch potatoes. But a new report today claims that Britain’s love affair with television is causing far more damage - both physically and psychologically - than previously thought.
The findings have been compiled by Dr Aric Sigman, a psychologist who has previously written about the effects of television on the viewer. His report, analysing 35 different scientific studies carried out into television and its effect on the viewer, has identified 15 negative effects he claims can be blamed on watching television.
Among the most disturbing findings are the links he claims to have found between long hours of television viewing and cancer, autism and Alzheimer’s.
The effects on children watching TV have been well publicised in Britain. Fears of a timebomb of obesity have sparked a wave of ministerial initiatives to promote sport and tackle the couch-potato lifestyle.
However, today’s report suggests the consequences of television are far more serious. They range from myopia and attention deficit disorder to diabetes, autism, Alzheimer’s and a generation whose brains are being numbed by on-screen imagery.
His report, published in the respected Biologist magazine, claims the problem with television lies in the length of time we spend in front of the set. For most people, watching television now takes up more time than any other single activity except work and sleep. According to the British Audience Research Bureau, by the age of 75 the average Briton will have spent more than 12 years of their life watching television.
Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and author of Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives, said arguments over how educational programmes are were a distraction. He said: “The medical studies I have looked at are about the medium of television, irrespective of the programmes children are watching. It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring.”
Dr Sigman’s research draws from studies by groups including the American Academy of Paediatrics, Cornell University, Stanford University Medical Centre, the British Market Research Bureau and medical publications such as the Lancet and the Journal of Sleep Research.
The stage for the harm Dr Sigman believes television is doing is being set, he claims, by the vast amounts of it we watch - by the age of six, a child will already have spent one year in front of the television. When time in front of a computer is added, the psychologist claims watching a screen of some kind is the dominant activity for older children - those aged 11 to 15 now spend 55 per cent of their waking lives, or seven and a half hours a day, watching television and computers. According to today’s report, that represents a 40 per cent rise in a decade.
Dr Sigman claims the battery of ill effects takes its toll on both body and mind. He claims the effect on the brain is not stimulating, but almost narcotic, numbing the areas of the brain stimulated by, for example, reading.
The influence of modern editing techniques - for example the rapid “jump cuts” - also plays its part. Attention spans fracture while at the same time, according to Dr Sigman, the brain is programmed to reward itself with the neurotransmitter dopamine for being able to cope with an onslaught of novelty on screen.
The litany of bodily ills Dr Sigman links to television makes for equally bleak reading. He associates it not only with obesity, but Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even the breakdown of cells capable of healing wounds. Dr Sigman claims a significant body of research now points to television as a key factor in reducing levels of the hormone melatonin, the substance that regulates the body’s internal clock and also governs the speed at which puberty develops.
Melatonin is produced at night and induces feelings of sleepiness. However, today’s report suggests the bright light emitted by television screens may play a part in suppressing melatonin levels in the blood.
That syndrome may explain that adolescents who are glued to the television are tired out by more than watching late-night programmes.
The other crucial issue thrown up by melatonin, Dr Sigman says, is its link to puberty. The hormone also plays a key role in governing the onset of puberty, and its suppression may be paving the way for a generation of children to experience ever-earlier entries into adolescence.
That tendency can be traced back to the 1950s, according to the report, when television itself became a mass medium.
While the mass of research indexed by Dr Sigman goes heavily into physiology and biology, one conclusion may be more recognisable to general critics of TV - the suggestion that daytime TV and soaps virtually rot the brain. “The content of television - soap operas and talk shows - is also associated with poorer cognition in older women, including clinically significant cognitive impairment in attention, memory and psychomotor speed [reaction time],” he said.
Dr Sigman last night said the youngest children should be banned from watching TV at all, and introduced to it “judiciously” after that.
He added: “To allow children to continue to watch this much screen media is an abdication of parental responsibility - truly hands-off parenting.”
In a reference to the crusade by celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver, the academic added: “While society has shown alarm over school dinners, it has ignored the high-screen diet children have been consuming.”
However, other critics last night suggested that not all time spent before a screen was bad.
Adrian Monck, a professor of journalism and media analyst at City University in London, said: "I certainly think the idea of banning young children from watching television is impractical.
“Television is part of growing up and what we need to be aware of is how children use that. Television, like everything, is something you have to take with a pinch of salt - I certainly think there is a good case for parents not using it as a substitute carer.”
Pat Kane, a broadcaster and writer, said he also disagreed with “parking children in front of television or DVDs without some element of monitoring or even participation in the narrative”.
However, Mr Kane cited programmes such as CBBC’s Tracy Beaker - which is based on Jacqueline Wilson’s novel about child in care - as a “fabulous” way of showing that “some children are facing problems with parents, lifestyle and economics”.
OBESITY
