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DISNEY OFFERS REFUND ON BABY EINSTEIN VIDEOS FOR MISLEADING CONSUMERS.

by Joelle Panisch
Here’s a victory for the good guys!  The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and parents whose mission is to “limit the impact of commercial culture on children” especially from corporate marketers.  In 2006 the CCFC filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that forced Disney to rescind its claims that Baby Einstein videos were educational for infants.  However Disney made no attempt to reimburse parents who bought them believing the videos would make their babies smarter, until now.
 
 Thanks to the persistent pressure by the CCFC Disney has agreed to a refund.  For a limited time parents can return their misleading DVD’s and help make a statement to mega-corporations like Disney that parent’s won’t be fooled.  
 
Consumers have until March 4th, 2010 to return their DVDs so act soon.   For more information on how to get your refund click here. 
 
Based on extensive research and studies by multiple sources, the CCFC compiled a fact sheet on baby videos:
 
Baby Einstein DVDs and other screen media have not been shown to effectively educate babies and toddlers. 
 
• There is no evidence of cognitive benefits from watching television during the first two years of life.  1
• While television can be an effective teaching tool for older children, there is no credible evidence that babies and toddlers learn anything useful from screens. 2
• Screen media is not an effective means of teaching babies and toddlers the meaning of new words or for promoting their phonetic learning. 3
• Babies who watched Baby Einstein’s Baby Wordsworth multiple times showed no increased communication skills when compared to a control group that did not watch. 4
 
Marketing Electronic Media as Educational for Babies is Effective.
 
• Baby media companies routinely make unfounded educational claims to sell parents on their products. Brand names such as Brainy Baby, Baby Einstein, and Baby Genius are powerful—and deceptive—marketing tools. Forty-eight percent of parents believe that baby videos are beneficial to child development. 5
• The most common reason parents give for putting their babies and toddlers in front of screens is that they are beneficial to their child’s brain development. 6
• Only 6% of American parents know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two. 7
 
Screen Media is Pervasive in the Lives of Babies
and Toddlers.
 
• By the age of three months, 40% of infants are watching screen media regularly. By the time children are two, the number jumps to 90%. Children younger than 12 months watch, on average, one hour of television daily. Children between 12 and 24 months watch for more than 90 minutes per day. 8
 • 19% of babies one year and under have a TV in their bedroom. 9
 
There is Growing Concern about the Effects of Screen Media on Babies
 
• The more time babies spend viewing television the less time they spend interacting withparents or engaging in creative play—two activities known to promote learning.  10
 • Television viewing is negatively associated with regular sleep patterns for babies. 11
• TV viewing can be habituating for babies. 12
 
 
1  Schmidt, M.E., Rich, M., Rifas-Shiman, S.L, Oken, E,.&  Taveras, E.  (2009. )Television viewing in infancy and child cognition at 3
years of age in a US cohort.  Pediatrics  123: 370-375.
2  Anderson, D. & Pempek, T. (2005).  Television and Very Young Children.  American Behavioral Scientist.  48(5): 505-522.
3  Zimmerman, F.J., Christakis, D.A., Meltzoff, A.N. (2007) Television and DVD/video viewing in children younger than 2 years.
Archives of  Pediatric & Adolescent  Medicine. 161(5): 473-9.    
4  Robb, M.B., Richert, R.A., & Wartella, E.A. (2009). Just a talking book? Word learning from watching baby videos.  British Journal
of Developmental Psychology. 27: 27-45. 
5  Rideout, V. (2007). Parents, Children and Media:  A Report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.  Menlo Park, CA:  Kaiser Family Foundation, p. 15. 
6  Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, (2007).    
7  Rideout, V. (2004). Parents, Media, and Public Policy.  Menlo Park: Kaiser Family Foundation, p. 10.
8  Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, (2007).    
9  Rideout, V. & Hamel, E. (2006). The Media Family: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their
parents. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.  
10  Vandewater, E.A., Bickham, D.S. & Lee, J.H. (2006, February). Time well spent? Relating television use to children’s free-time
activities. Pediatrics, 117(2): e181-191.
11  Thompson, D.A. & Christakis, D. (2005). The association between television viewing and irregular sleep schedules among
children less than 3 years of age. Pediatrics. 116 (4): 851-856. 
12  Christakis, D.A. & Zimmerman, F.J. (2006). Early television viewing Is associated with protesting turning off the television at age 6. Medscape General Medicine, 8(2): 63.
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