Many ads in parenting magazines show unsafe practices for kids
The heartwarming images of children — smiling, laughing out loud and
snuggling — that fill the pages of parenting magazines actually hold a
less-than-obvious problem: Many of these ads show kids doing things that
are not safe.
In fact, about one in six advertisements in two of the top-selling
parenting magazines in the United States contains images or promotes
products that could be considered unsafe for a child's health, a new study reveals.
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The ads show photographs or describe products that conflict with the
health and safety recommendations from the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP), the nation's largest pediatricians group, according to
the researchers.
For example, an ad might show a photograph of young children in a boat, where the kids are not wearing life jackets.
This image conflicts with pediatricians' recommendation that kids under
12 always wear life vests while boating. Or, for instance, an ad might
show babies in their cribs, sleeping on their stomachs or sides, rather
than being placed on their backs, which is the recommended practice to
lower the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
"It was surprising that about every sixth ad in these parenting
magazines had at least one violation of AAP policies," said Dr. Michael
Pitt, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of
Minnesota in Minneapolis and a co-author of the study. [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt]
The researchers had expected to see only a small handful of ads
containing offenses, he said. Instead, they found many violations in a
wide range of product categories, from infant sleep and toy safety to supplements and baby formula.
For their analysis, the researchers reviewed the pages of the two
parenting magazines with the largest circulations, "Parents" and "Family
Fun." They looked at all of the ads for products used by children that
appeared in issues from the years 2009 and 2014.
For each ad, the researchers evaluated whether the product, the
photograph and the words in the ad were consistent with published
recommendations from the AAP's policy statements, injury prevention
manual or website advice on healthychildren.org.
The researchers will present their findings Oct. 25 at the AAP's yearly national meeting in Washington, D.C.
Potentially harmful images
In the vast majority of cases, the problems the researchers found
were in the ads' images. In fact, more than half of the problematic
images promoted practices that could be potentially life-threatening to
children, Pitt said.
For example, one problem the researchers identified was in an ad for a
non-FDA-approved dietary supplement that claimed to treat childhood
depression, he said. Another ad showed children riding bicycles
without helmets, and a toddler reaching into a bag of popcorn, a food
that should be avoided by children under age 5 because it's a possible
choking hazard.
Others images showed a baby using an infant walker, and a crib with
bumpers — both of which are practices the pediatricians group does not
recommend.(Walkers do not help children learn to walk, and they can
actually delay normal motor development, the AAP says. And crib bumpers are a suffocation and strangulation hazard.)
When the researchers compared the ads in the 2014 issues to those
from 2009, they found fewer problems related to sleep safety and children's screen time
(such as infant DVDs, which are not advised for kids under 2), which
likely resulted from increased media attention to these topics.
However, they observed an increase in problems related to ads for
non-FDA-approved treatments and products that may make children more
likely to fall.
The researchers' concern is that when parents see these ads and
photos depicted on the glossy pages of a magazine, it may send a message
that this behavior is normal, even though these practices could be
harmful to children, Pitt told Live Science.
Pitt said he hopes the study findings create increased awareness
among parents about the potentially harmful messages in ads, and that it
encourages more parents to advocate for safer ads.
He also hopes the findings may encourage advertisers of children's
products, as well as editors of parenting magazines, to review their ads
and accompanying images to make sure they are consistent with the best
practices for children's health and safety.
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By Cari Nierenberg
Published October 23, 201
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