These Legs Were Made for Walking: How Television and Internet Contribute to Childhood Obesity

Most of us 40 and older can remember childhoods spent walking to school, playing tag, walking places with friends, and spending summers playing outside. For millions of years, our ancestors walked or ran many miles nearly every day in search of food. Our bodies are built for distance walking and running; our bones and hormones, metabolism, and even our brain chemistry thrive on strenuous exercise. When we ignore these facts, we do so to the detriment of our physical health and mental well-being.

The Kung San hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari desert, whose ancestors were perhaps the genetic ancestors of us all, according to the Human Genome Project, until very recently continued to gather and hunt for most of their foods. This lifestyle required them to walk and run many miles throughout their lives. Because most young girls were lean and muscular from daily physical activity, and because they ate healthy wild foods, they did not reach puberty until an average age of 17. In our own society, the age of onset of puberty has dropped until many girls are now experiencing their first period at age 11. Much of this drop is attributed to the presence of hormones in the meat we eat, but a significant part is probably also due to the higher fat content in girls' bodies earlier in life, as they replace running and walking with television and Internet.

In the 1950s, children grew up with little or no television and no computers, video games, or Internet. Today's children take advantage of these sedentary forms of entertainment for hours each day. In the average U.S. home, the television is on for more than eight hours per day and the average child aged 2-17 watches roughly 19 hours of television per week (Nielsen Media Research, 2000). For older children, the average is even higher.

The average American youth spends more hours watching television than attending school. Not only does violent television programming have detrimental effects on young people, but hours spent in front of the TV are hours not spent on more productive activities like exercising. The percentage of overweight children today has more than tripled since 1964; estimates range from 15 percent to 30 percent for 2008. Many children today spend less time exercising than ever before. School recesses have been cut shorter, and many recess yards have been enclosed and reduced in size so that teachers can supervise students more closely. Parents worry more about safety, so children aren't as free to roam in woods and fields. As a child, I often walked for hours in the woods with only my dog for company; it would be hard to find many urban children allowed the same freedom today.

When research shows that 60 percent of overweight incidence can be linked to excess television viewing, as reported in the International Journal of Obesity (Williams, 2003), it is time for parents and responsible adults to take action. And while Internet has not been around as long, it presents another outlet for teenagers to stay inside instead of exercising. Given the well-documented detrimental effects of excessive television and Internet use, it is clear that parents should limit the time their children spend in front of the screen. But parents cannot win this battle alone. When other kids' families and the culture at large allow hours of television and Internet use every day, it undermines the efforts that responsible parents make to help their children.

Thus, the following suggestions for concerned parents include some community action steps that can help promote a healthier neighborhood and school culture for children and teens.

• 1. Begin by limiting television and Internet use at home. It is important to place an overall time limit on the use of these media first, rather than arguing over each program and computer game. Once the time limit is in place, children will naturally limit their use to their favorite choices, and then parents can assess the merits of these particular choices. Experts suggest no more than one-half hour of Internet use or computer games per day, or one hour every other day; no more than one hour of television five days a week, or two to three movies; total hours of television should not exceed five. These moderate limits still allow a combined amount of media time of eight to nine hours per week. Even watching just 10 hours of television per week has been shown to negatively affect academic achievement, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
• 2. Enlist the help of other parents. Many parents have struggled to put limits in place, only to have their efforts undermined when their children spend time at friends' houses with families that allow many more hours of watching or playing computer games. Invite parents of your children's friends to a one-on-one tea or coffee break, where they can express their feelings without the risk of embarrassment in front of others. By sharing your concerns gently and in the context of building friendship and community, you will find a surprising number of allies.
• 3. Consider having "turn off the TV" (or Internet) days once a week or once a month. It is possible! And the changes will impact your child for a lifetime. A researcher once asked to interview my oldest child when he was four years old, as part of a research project on racial stereotyping in the media, when she discovered that we did not have television. When she asked if I knew any other families who did not have television, she was amazed to discover that most of our friends with young children had chosen not to have television, although several used videos on a limited basis. Our support system worked: Instead of hours in front of the television, we had popsicle parties on our front porches, sidewalk chalk coloring days, construction projects in the yard, and walks to local parks together. As our children grew older, most of us moved away but many have continued to have a television-free home. Judicious use of video and DVD players allows our children to enjoy movies occasionally without the damaging effects of excess hours or unwelcome programming. And each place we have lived, we have found new friends with a similar approach.
• 4. Build a community of families who limit television and Internet use by hosting potlucks, children's parties with active games, and outdoor sporting events. One family we know hosts a weekly neighborhood volleyball game no matter the weather, in Alaska. If they can do it, anyone can! While older teens that drive will choose to spend time with other families that may have different values on this subject, those without a driver's license will naturally make friends with at least some of the children in the families you choose.
• 5. Make a concerted effort to supply alternatives, especially those that involve physical activity. A new bicycle or skateboard, rollerblades, sports classes, a day at a nearby lake each weekend of the summer, and summer camps are all worth your time and money. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there is a 70 percent chance that overweight adolescents will become overweight or obese adults. With this statistic in mind, it is imperative that we take action as responsible parents now.

Catherine Knott, Ph.D. is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska, Homer.

Resources:

Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books 1991.

Mander, Jerry. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television . New York: William Morrow/Quill 1977.

Nielsen Media Research, 2000.

Tremblay, MS, 2001. "Overweight and Obesity 2001"

U.S. Dept. of Education, 1994. "Strong Families, Strong Schools, Building Community Partnerships for Learning."

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001. "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity 2001.