Why do parents allow such young children to watch TV?
Nearly 30 percent of these parents told us they believed that TV, DVDs or videos were beneficial, helping with a child’s brain development. Others believed their infants or toddlers enjoyed TV. Some parents use media as an electronic babysitter so they could do other things. The American Academy of Pediatrics is clear in their recommendations for a media-blackout for kids under 2 years of age. Why the disconnect between those recommendations and what parents are doing? Many parents have accepted the guidelines on vaccinations and no spanking. But television and other forms of media are different. Most parents don’t believe that TV is potentially dangerous to their children at such a young age. These are parents—roughly ages 25 to 35—who grew up with TV in the household and they seemed to be very comfortable using TV in their parenting. Plus, marketers of infant-directed programming have been much more successful than the academic community in getting their message out to parents that t
