The phenomenally successful market in "baby genius" videos is under attack from American child psychologists, and the US government is considering forcing the companies who make them to withdraw claims that they help develop young children intelligence.
The phenomenally successful market in "baby genius" videos is under attack from American child psychologists, and the US government is considering forcing the companies who make them to withdraw claims that they help develop young children’s intelligence.
The videos and DVDs, with names such as Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and Baby Genius, have generated $1bn (£540m) in sales in the US since their launch in the mid-90s. They are increasingly popular in the UK, where the market leader, Baby Einstein, part of the Disney empire, distributes its products through Mothercare.
A campaign group led by the Harvard psychologist Susan Linn has filed a complaint with the federal trade commission, arguing that advertisements for the videos in the US are false and deceptive because there is no evidence that watching them helps babies learn.
"The bind is that parents in this country are under terrible stress, so the idea that these videos might be educational is helpful for them, because it makes it OK to put babies in front of screens," said Ms Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "These companies have been doing a really good job of convincing parents that these videos are education - but there’s no evidence that television is beneficial, and some evidence that it may be harmful."
The Baby Einstein range, targeted at under-2s, name-drops great figures from science and the arts; titles include Baby Bach, Baby Newton and Baby Mozart Music Festival. Baby Wordsworth "will foster the development of your toddler’s speech and language skills," the company claims on its US website, though its British promotional literature is more modest.
Rival firm Brainy Baby claims its Peeka-Boo video is "brain stimulating", and will help "nurture such important skills as ... cause and effect [and] language development".
Many Baby Einstein videos consist largely of footage of other commercially available toys, thus serving essentially as advertising, according to campaigners.
The company, which did not return calls seeking comment, does not manufacture the toys but benefits financially from "a licensing deal like any other licensing deal", Ms Linn said.
The backlash against the videos was fuelled by a study published in December by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found no evidence that the products helped babies learn - but discovered that 49% of American parents believed they were important in their children’s education.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two should watch no television at all.
"Nowhere does it say, ‘If you buy this video it’s guaranteed that your child will become a rocket scientist’," Dennis Fedoruk, founder of Brainy Baby, told the Guardian. He said his products should not be used as babysitters, and he had decided to change the firm’s slogan from A Little Genius In the Making, to Learning for a Lifetime, after Kaiser expressed concern.
"That tagline is in extremely small type on the back cover beneath our logo, and I don’t know of a single consumer confused by this tagline, but if it makes them happy, OK, no problem."
© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 5/3/2006
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