Magic and Mayhem

PARIS - France’s broadcast authority has banned French channels from marketing TV shows to children under three years of age, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age.

The ruling also ordered warning messages for parents on foreign baby channels that are broadcast in France - such as Baby TV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and BabyFirstTV, which has ties to News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment.

…It also orders French cable operators that air foreign channels with programs for babies to broadcast warning messages to parents. The messages will read: “Watching television can slow the development of children under three, even when it involves channels aimed specifically at them.”

…”Television viewing hurts the development of children under three years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens,” the ruling said.

 Read the full article here.  My own little ones rarely tolerated sitting still long enough to watch a TV program but I must confess there have been more than a few mornings when I’ve told Alex “Please watch the singing beasties for a few minutes and let mama sleep just a little bit more!”.  He never goes for it.  The French would be pleased.