Parents limiting kids' TV time; education a concern

November 1, 2007

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Parents are taking a more active role in raising their children than they did a decade ago, setting greater restrictions on television watching and reading more to youngsters, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

The findings suggest that adults are reacting to a more dangerous world, while both parents and students are dealing with increased competition to get into good colleges, experts said.

"Whether it's a realistic panic or not, things like school shootings or child abductions or pedophile predators, that has a certain group of American parents pretty worried," said Angela Hattery, a sociology professor at Wake Forest University.

The report is from the Census Bureau's 2004 survey of income and program participation, which had a sample of 46,500 households. The results were compared with answers from the same survey questions in 1994.

In 2004, about 47% of teenagers had multiple television restrictions, including limits on program types, the time of day they could watch and how much they could see. That compares with 40% in 1994.

Nearly 71% of children age 6 to 11 had such limits in 2004, compared with 60% a decade earlier.

"All you have to do is own a TV," said Hattery, a parent. "I'm shocked at what you can see at 8 o'clock."

Parents also are feeling peer pressure to spend more time with their kids, and guilt when they don't, said Elizabeth Cooksey, a sociology professor at Ohio Sate University.

"We've really moved into this cultural expectation that this is what good parents do," Cooksey said. "It's more a cultural consensus, that if we are going to be parents, we are going to have to put time into it."

More parents read to their children in 2004 than a decade earlier. Wealthier, better-educated parents were more likely to do so than parents with lower incomes and less education.

Overall, 51% of parents with children age 3 to 5 said they had read to them at least seven times a week in 2004, compared with about 47% in 1994.

Students also are feeling pressure at school, with increased testing at all grade levels and tougher requirements to get into college.

It is no wonder: About 85% of parents said in 2004 that they expected their children to graduate from college.

To help, there were significant increases in students taking classes outside the regular school day, including lessons in music, dance, languages, computers and religion. About 29% of teenagers took such classes in 2004, compared with 19% in 1994.

The share of teens who played sports dropped during the decade, from 42% to 39%.

In addition to improving a college application, extracurricular activities help students feel accepted among their peers, said Ellen deLara, an assistant professor of social work at Syracuse University who works with adolescents.

"The notion of being activities that are worthy, whether it is community service or the band, that is extremely important to them," deLara said. "Adolescents who don't have the opportunity for that may feel alienated at school or in society in general."

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Article: Markey Demands McD's, Other Marketers Follow Kellogg's Lead

Congressman Tells Five Food Titans to Implement Kids' Advertising Limits

By Ira Teinowitz

Published: June 19, 2007

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- The chairman of a congressional panel is ratcheting up pressure on McDonald's, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kraft Foods and PepsiCo, demanding they follow Kellogg's lead and commit to kids' marketing limits -- or else.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.


As part of a lawsuit settlement last week, Kellogg announced that in any medium that has a large audience of children under age 12, it would market only foods that meet new nutritional criteria. The marketer also went beyond rivals' initiatives, saying it would alter product ingredients to meet minimum health standards or quit advertising them to children.

Investigating impact of ads
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in letters to five of Kellogg's competitors, told those companies to implement similar limits, and announced new plans for a House hearing on the issue. Mr. Markey, who chairs the telecom panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said his panel's hearing this Friday on the impact of violent and tobacco-smoking images children see on TV will now also look at repercussions of the food ads children view.

The letters ask the companies to respond by June 29.

Mr. Markey cited a report from the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine that said marketing could have an effect on food choices. "I am concerned that the prevalence of advertisements on children's television for junk food, fast food and other foods wholly lacking in nutritional value is one of the root causes of America's childhood obesity epidemic," Mr. Markey wrote in the letters.

"I would like to know whether your company will commit to implementing the same marketing restrictions Kellogg has announced. Such information may inform the subcommittee and the public as to additional steps that may be warranted to safeguard kids from junk-food ads during children's television programming."

An aide to the congressman said the five companies were selected because of their extensive use of marketing to kids. At press time, a witness list for this week's hearing wasn't yet available.

Could bring in FCC
In an April 16 letter to several Federal Communications Commission commissioners, Mr. Markey said the FCC would need to play a more active role in limiting food advertising on kids' shows if marketers don't act voluntarily.

"There is no question that the commission has both the affirmative obligation and the statutory authority to examine whether placing limitations on certain food advertising to children would further the public interest," he wrote then. "If a 'core' educational program tells children to eat healthy foods and exercise, but the advertisements aired during the program encourage them to eat Twinkies and Fruit Loops, the ads have the potential to undercut the educational and informational value of the program."