Media Influence On Childhood Obesity

Childhood Obesity is defined as a serious medical condition occurring when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height, according to the Mayo Clinic (2015). As a constant thrive towards health, researchers have looked into the possible causes of childhood obesity. One example of this is the media, specifically advertisements for unhealthy food. It is easy to see how regulation and protection are important in advertisements when shown the correlation between obesity and the media. Television’s influence on children’s weight and health is discussed in an article published by ABC News (2016). The article claims that obesity is linked to the amount of time children are using media whether it be television, the Internet, computer games, or video games. On average, kids spend about five and a half hours using media, which is more time than they spend doing any other activity besides sleeping. For every hour of media viewed, there is a two percent increase in the presence of obesity. Even without knowing the reason, these statistics show that the media, in one way or another, has a correlation with obesity.
To develop this further, when talking about the content of …show more content…
ABC News (2016) recommends limiting advertising aimed at preschoolers by elimination cross-promotions between cartoon characters and unhealthy food. An example of this would be having SpongeBob SquarePants being on a box of sugary cereal. This regulation will help unnecessary purchases as the favorite cartoon on the box gives one more reason to buy the unhealthy food. An obvious option, though rarely present, is providing equal time for messages on nutrition and fitness aimed at children. This could help offset the unhealthy food and contribute to necessary health information that would be a good foundation for a healthy future, avoiding childhood