I sort of agree with France on this. All this technology that we have, these advances, are not necessarily advances. We don't know. We're the test generation. My mom always criticized sesame street and its short snippets and quick cuts to different, unrelated stories. She thought maybe it would encourage or create ADD problems for young children.

Agreed. I wish the FCC would tighten the reins and remove all children's programs.

This is just ridiculous.

lol, every time I go back to the CS main page the comment counts are going down.

Must be a glitch.

Your comments just don't count.

Ugh, this is awful. Let's leave the parenting decisions up the parents, okay France?

GS hangs her head and walks off kicking the dirt.

"Let's leave the parenting decisions up the parents, okay France?"

I agree! This is way too aggressive and not the government's responsibility.

Not to mention the fact that even if a channel has all baby programming, there aren't many babies watching it 24/7. You just never know when a parent might want to switch on the TV for a little bit.

I'm fine with it. I mean, if a parent is desperate for her child to watch these programs 24/7, she can buy DVDs. Now parents have to stop and think about what they are doing to their children--it's not as easy to rot their kiddies' brains.

I think this is WONDERFUL! I know it's not ideal but I think TV is so damaging and a hard habit to break, some kids don't have a chance. They don't have parents that will make these choices.

Dear parents of little children,
The only tv show your kids should watch (if you need a break at some point during the day) is Mr. Rogers. He goes slow, he is a real person, he basically covers one topic per show.
You certainly can kid yourself, and talk about personal freedom and parental responsibility, but the brains of your childern will suffer.

"Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos."
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html

Baby Einstein = Baby Frankenstein

I'm not a parent, so while I can say that I don't think it's the best idea to let your babies watch any kind of TV, really (they have enough years to be sitting in front of the tube for hours, no?), I also understand that sometimes TV does work as a nice Child Sedation Device and that life isn't something you can accomplish by the "Do Everything Perfectly All The Time" book. So I don't agree with this at all. As long as the programming isn't obscene or otherwise genuinely provably damaging, and as long as it isn't causing epileptic fits (hello, lost Pokemon episode), this is a decision that should be left up to the parents.

My child's intelligence will suffer if I believe in personal freedom and practice parental responsibility? That's asinine.

It's pretty silly for a government to restrict the freedom of a broadcasting station simply because a child is spending time on something other than learning.

A California Park Ranger coined a phrase that I agree with (nature deficit disorder). When I was a kid growing up kids actually played outside and littered the side walks with bikes, skate boards, bats, balls and jump ropes. We used our imaginations, exercised, scraped our knees and when we lifted up that big rock in the corner of the yard to find a miniature civilization it was an amazing find.

Today children’s imaginations are increasingly being supplanted with programming. The mind is not exercised on an exceptional level when stimulation which promotes growth is muted and in those critical years when the brain is rapidly developing it is not the wisest choice to allow your child to spend hours each day in front of the TV or video games. There is definitely a drastic difference of what 3:00 to 6:00pm looks like now on neighborhood streets and thirty years ago.

Was it appropriate for France to do what they did? Sure, they're a Social Democracy. Would it be appropriate here? Hell no. We need to be left alone to suffer our ignorance because that's the American way. However, our government should do what is appropriate and that is to suggest. I just wish they would suggest some things as mellow dramatically as they want to suggest it's a good idea to go to war.

Newly built homes have huge tv rooms and computer rooms, with little tiny yards, hypnoticmix.

What you said was so true, hypno.

I wasn't as active as you (bones made out of glass, really), but even I went Rollerblading by the lake with friends and spent hours sitting under the willow tree in the backyard reading books. My parents and all our extended family limited TV time to the extreme, too, so even when my cousins were all at our house, instead of watching TV or playing video games we whiled away whole afternoons making costumes out of blankets and bedsheets and acting out little dramas and stuff.

I dunno, all that just seems more fun than being parked in front of the TV all day.

I try very hard to send my kids out to play. especially in the summer, but there are times when I play a video to get them to wind down. I've found they can watch Veggie Tales for about 1/3 of the tale (approx 5 minutes), and then I have to move them on to something else, like bed.

I know. My dream home is a two story california craftsman with a huge front porch where I can sit and watch my kids play. haha.

Yeah, we've decided we don't want to buy a house until we find one with a nice big yard front and back, that's affordable.

(Good luck with that in Southern California, I know.)

LOL, I have a small house on 12 acres. Land is much more affordable in the midwest.

Dude, when I first moved out to Cali from Illinois and saw the real estate prices, I was like, "Um, where I come from you can get a four-bedroom house with gorgeous front and back yards for the price of a one-room shack in the ghetto here."

I doubt we'll stay in SoCal all our lives, in large part because of the real estate situation (and the public school situation). We both want our kids to have that Midwestern childhood we had. With the yards and all that.

That's a good idea Jude, just please leave the So Cal cr@p behind when you come back. I'll keep the light on for ya.

That's a good idea Jude, just please leave the So Cal cr@p behind when you come back. I'll keep the light on for ya.

I totally agree hypno. Many days of my childhood were spent playing outdoors. For a period of time we had goats, chickens, and horses next door. When I was in 3rd grade I regularly snuck away from school and played in the creek....catching baby frogs of course! Our family vacations were mostly camping trips, where we'd play in the dirt all day. Or we'd go to the beach to play in the tide pools. I firmly believe my love of science was created during my childhood years.

I don't think its necessarily a BAD thing to allow your children to watch tv, but tv shouldn't parent or educate your child more than you or the real outdoors can. It certainly won't live up to the task.

I have a feeling we'll fall into the Midwestern life quite easily--seventeen years living there and twenty for him doesn't wash away so soon!

This is the jist of what I heard from my doctor and why i dont use videos for my baby (in someone elses words)

"Babies brains grow rapidly. Even a child playing with its own fingers has the neural patterning that comes from bending, flexing, stretching and grasping. Scientists tell us that the brain develops in completely unique ways between birth and three years. As a kiddie viddie baby sits "mesmerized", neural paths are not being created. This is crucial brain development that stops by age three." http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/eco/tvdanger.html

the article goes on to talk about the link with attention problems. i think the french govt's logic here might be related to the fact that behavioral problems hurt the state when france needs to cough up funds for special classroom aides, pills, or whatever comes with the problems. so this might not be a moral/big brother type policy as much as a fiscal decision, like taxing cigarettes...

I doubt that these kids will be watching any less TV... they'll just be watching Night Rider reruns or something instead.

I am a fan of educating people about possible consequences of their actions... not a fan of legislating something like this.

Born in Chicago, SoCal was less of the city life. Now-a-days, I am thinking Oregon. We pay a lot for better weather.

TV or no, the Tele-tubbies do not seem educational to me even though I found that my kids liked it. I couldn't understand what the heck they were saying. I avoided that one as much as possible.

The worst thing about TV at young ages is they learn about McDonalds and Chuck E Cheese. I taught them that those places do not serve healthy food none the less.

The makers of Tele Tubbies did a documentary of why they created it and said that it was to show movement of the body like dancing and walking, jumping and eating. If you've seen it or if you could stand 5 minutes of it, that explanation makes sense. They both learned to walk at 10 months, before they learned to watch the Teletubbies

I found that showing my baby girl Elmo games on the computer at 17 months, she quickly learned to read. The Key-board-o-rama was the best. My son didn't learn letters like that, he just banged the keyboard like it was a ball. The girl can read whole books at 4 years. The boy can dribble a ball for minutes at 2 years.

Everyone learns differently and if TV is moderated and learning is structured to each individual then it shouldn't be up to the government to decide what how parents parent.

I agree bluesarahlou I had such and adventurous childhood and when I look at my grand nieces and nephews today they're inside all the time. Whenever I go visit my family I make it a point to round up the kids and take them on an adventure. My sisters and nieces love it, they get to go shopping. I remember the first time I took them to the tide pool and showed them a sea slug and a sea urchin their faces lit up like a christmas trees.

TV is a valiable tool for learning but it's also a dangerous over indulgence especially for a child.

My face still lights up when I go to tide pools. I'm really lucky to live near the ocean in Ca. They're soooo much fun. Except when you slip on the kelp and land ankle deep in water

I agree with this decision. It may sound harsh but many parents just plug their kids in front of the TV no matter how young they are. As a poster above said, if they want to do so, they can just get DVDs.

What happened to plain old PARENTING?

javsmav & janneth got it right on this one. A. if you want your kids to watch stuff, get netflix. B. if you do get netflix, get mr. rogers. i STILL remember tons of things about that show - it was all about imagination and being creative, and it taught us how to be caring, and thoughtful. man... i miss him! did you know he was also a concert pianist?

i can certainly respect what they are trying to do here - but if you think about it - there are always conflicting reports on how early children have to be to develop properly and when they can successfully be receptive to TV and stimulants like that. i like that they want to limit the amount of TV that kids watch, but i don't know if it's really going to work. they can't stop parents from buying DVDs of these programs...and parents that use TV as a means of baby-sitting will have to adjust some how.

i think that it's a step in the right direction - it's just now a matter of how successful they are - or if the networks will band against the government regulations to try to make a change.

Hypno, I agree with you on all counts.

On a side note, would you adopt me as a surrogate niece?! I want to go on adventures!

I think it's a fantastic idea! Let's not forget the attitude to TV has changed since the time we were kids - hell when I grew up no one would ever have a family dinner in front of the TV!

Some people said it's up to the parents to decide, but really to me it'd be like putting porn 24/7 on TV and then say 'well if you don't HAVE to watch it, you can choose'.

i think they gone to far. babies are babie, what else are they suppose to watch other then children tv? what, CNN? its up to the parents if they allow their children to watch children t.v. or not. i just think that the gov't think they can rule other ppl children when they have no business to.

this all goes back to the question "how much do we want the government controlling our lives?" When the government starts controlling what you can and can not watch I think there is an issue.

As far as the TV goes for kids, we all know that this should be a no brainer, but alas some people plop their kids in front of the TV for hours at a time. We also know that smoking kills, yet some people still do it...

meandtheo, Hypno said it best:
"Was it appropriate for France to do what they did? Sure, they're a Social Democracy. Would it be appropriate here? Hell no."

I don't know amybdk, how much do you eat? LOL!

how much SHOULD i eat?

LOL, we'll if I was anything like my Mexican grandmother I'd be orbiting around the table cheerleeding people to eat eat.

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high, just take a look, its in a book, A Reading Rainbow! I can go anywhere, friends to know, and ways to grow, A Reading Rainbow! I can be anything, take a look, its in a book, A Reading Rainbow! READING RAINBOW!!!

So is that a yes, hotmix... i mean, hypnoticmix?

Awwwww Reading Rainbow!!! I loved that show! Although I think the platform is kinda funny...it's a tv show...about reading...

Does anyone remember Romper Room? I swear that woman was trying to hypnotize me with that damn mirror.

What was the Romper Room about?

I lived for Mr. Rogers - I had a major crush, the reading rainbow, and Bozo.