The media can be a powerful teacher of children and adolescents and have a profound impact on their health. The media are not the leading cause of any major health problem in the United States, but they do contribute to a variety of pediatric and adolescent health problems. Given that children and teens spend >7 hours a day with media, one would think that adult society would recognize its impact on young people’s attitudes and behaviors. Too little has been done to protect children and adolescents from harmful media effects and to maximize the powerfully prosocial aspects of modern media.
- •
Young people now spend 7 to 11 hours per day with a variety of different media—more time than they spend in school or sleeping.
- •
Research has shown that children and teenagers learn from the media, and their behavior can be influenced by media.
- •
Media can have significant effects on health: eg, obesity, aggressive behavior, substance use, early sexual activity, eating disorders.
- •
Media can be powerfully prosocial at times.
- •
Parents, clinicians, and schools need to adapt to the world of new technology and understand the influence that media can have on young people.
True, media violence is not likely to turn an otherwise fine child into a violent criminal. But, just as every cigarette one smokes increases a little bit the likelihood of a lung tumor someday, every violent show one watches increases just a little bit the likelihood of behaving more aggressively in some situation.
—Psychologists Brad Bushman and L. Rowell Huesmann (p248)
“Something’s in the air, and I wouldn’t call it love. Like never before, our kids are being bombarded by images of oversexed, underdressed celebrities who can’t seem to step out of a car without displaying their well-waxed private parts to photographers.”
—Lead article, Newsweek, February 12, 2007
One erect penis on a US screen is more incendiary than a thousand guns.
—Newsweek critic David Ansen (p66)
A cigarette in the hands of a Hollywood star onscreen is a gun aimed at a 12- or 14-year-old.
—Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas
Research shows that virtually all women are ashamed of their bodies. It used to be adult women, teenage girls, who were ashamed, but now you see the shame down to very young girls—10, 11 years old. Society’s standard of beauty is an image that is literally just short of starvation for most women.
—Best-selling author Mary Pipher
[My doctor’s] only gone to one medical school, but if you go online, you can get advice from all over the world.
—Teenager quoted in TECHsex USA, 2011 (p17)
We are doing our youth a disservice if we believe that we can protect them from the world by limiting their access to public life. They must enter that arena, make mistakes, and learn from them. Our role as adults is not to be their policemen, but to be their guide.
—danah boyd, 2007
Media represent one of the most powerful and underappreciated influences on child and adolescent development and health. More than 50 years of media research and thousands of media effects studies attest to the potential power of the media to influence virtually every concern that parents and clinicians have about young people: aggressive behavior, sex, drugs, obesity, eating disorders, school performance, suicide, and depression. Although the media cannot be accused of being the leading cause of any of these health problems, they can make a substantial contribution. Yet media can also be powerfully beneficial in the lives of children and adolescents. Not only can they teach young children numbers and letters and increase school readiness (eg, Sesame Street ), the media can also teach more abstract concepts like empathy, acceptance of diversity, and respect for the elderly. Clearly, much more research is needed, but clinicians, parents, school administrators, and government officials all need to be aware of the research on the effects of modern media and act accordingly ( Fig. 1 ).
Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel
Full access? Get Clinical Tree
