More Talking, Less Typing

In an increasingly media-saturated society, television, the Internet and the latest high-tech gadgets have penetrated more deeply into everyday life than ever before, although most of the Japanese public is unaware of their harmful effects on children, experts say.

Children are constantly surrounded by video game systems, CD and DVD players, cell phones, large-screen TV sets and computers with Internet access.

According to a 2004 study by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 69.3 percent of Japanese households use a computer while 37.7 percent did in 1999, and 84.7 percent of them use a cell phone, compared with 64.9 percent in 1999. The number of Internet users in Japan stood at 79.5 million in 2004, well over half of the population — a dramatic increase from 27 million in 1999 — the same study showed. In addition, 62.8 percent of children between 6 and 12 years old surf the Internet, while 90.7 percent of 13- to 19-year-olds do, the study said.

Addiction to media can deprive children of sleep and opportunities to communicate with others and play outdoors, which can in turn affect their physical and mental development, according to the Fukuoka-based non-profit organization Children and Media.

Another 2004 study by Children and Media showed that approximately one-fourth of primary school and junior high school students spend more than six hours in contact with various media, a problem that the group called “serious.” That pushes back the normal bedtime hour, the group said. For example, only 25 percent of children in fourth grade and 10 percent of those in sixth grade go to bed before 9 p.m., according to the group’s study, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology.

“Children stay up that late because they keep watching television,” said Mariko Yamada, the group’s executive director and professor of clinical psychology at Kyushu Otani Junior College in Fukuoka.

During a visit to Germany, Yamada asked German counterparts what time their children usually go to bed. She was told that their bedtime hour was between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“When I was asked about Japanese children’s, I could not say that their average bedtime hour then was actually 9:40 p.m. But, I said it was 9 p.m.,” she recalled. “Still, they were appalled, gasping in surprise. It was so embarrassing.”

The average 3- to 5-year-old’s bedtime has now passed 10 p.m., said Yamada. “The wakefulness degradation is considered to cause more children to have concentration problems and problematic behaviors, becoming upset or impulsive.”

“That’s why we have more harried and distracted children,” said Atsuo Saito, best-selling author of children’s literature and former executive managing director of Fukuinkan Shoten, a Tokyo-based publishing company.

“Perhaps these children are very good at playing video games. But they are not good at communicating with their parents and other children,” said Yusaku Tazawa, vice chairperson of a children and media committee at the Japan Pediatric Association. “That has been detrimental to forming the foundation of their heart. The problem gets aggravated year after year.”

The lack of communication between a child and his or her parents could also lead to family breakdown, Saito said.

One of the gravest concerns of these groups in recent years is that more babies and younger children are exposed to media for longer hours. That can affect when babies start talking, according to the Japan Pediatric Society. While examining 1,900 18-month-old babies in three different regions, pediatricians found that babies exposed to television for longer hours start talking later. To make matters worse, most parents are ignorant of such harmful effects, the group added.

“This is one of the most serious problems in Japanese society today although most people are unaware of [it],” emphasized Saito.

The Japan Pediatric Society recommended that parents not allow their children to watch television and videos for long periods of time.

While more and more teachers at kindergartens and nursery schools are aware of the harmful effects of media on children, unfortunately many elementary school teachers, government officials and even some pediatricians are not, said Yamada.

On the contrary, the government and teachers encourage children to use the Internet these days with more computers introduced at school, which could expose them to harmful pornographic or violent images in cyberspace.

“Some [innocent] Internet search could whisk them to Web sites that contain sexually explicit contents,” Yamada explained.

“What one sees in childhood affects one’s behavior,” said Saito, a frequent lecturer on the potentially harmful effects of media on kids. “Young parents who love horror movies watch them with their baby. And such a baby is not likely to smile, instead, she occasionally has a horrified look.”

In 1998, the United Nations warned the Japanese government about the overexposure of children to media, although most of the public is unaware of the report.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said they were concerned at “the insufficient measures introduced to protect children from the harmful effects of the printed, electronic and audio-visual media, in particular violence and pornography,” and recommended that the Japanese government “introduce additional measures.”

Despite the U.N. recommendations, the Japanese government has done little to implement them, according to the Japan Pediatric Association.

Government officials rejected such criticism, saying they have been working on the problems with some non-profit organizations like Children and Media in Fukuoka.

While the government and major media organizations were downplaying the harmful effects of media, critics said, the Japan Pediatric Association issued recommendations. The group said children aged 2 and under should avoid watching television and video; children should stop watching television and video during meals; children’s media exposure should be limited to two hours a day or to 30 minutes a day for video games; television, VCRs, DVD players or computers should not be kept in a child’s room; and children and parents need to lay out specific ground rules regarding use of these media.

More parents have become aware of the problem and have started to limit children’s media and video game exposure, said Tazawa of the association’s recent campaign. “However, I’ve seen the gap of that awareness among the public widening. There are still so many people who don’t know the danger.”

Three-year-old children watch television for an average of three to four hours a day, added Tazawa, who is also a pediatrician at Sendai Medical Center in Miyagi Prefecture. “More of them probably [have] almost no contact [with] television because of [parental] restriction, while some watch it for even longer hours.”

Tazawa now has more opportunities to talk to parents, children and other pediatricians about media’s negative effects.

“Even before I talked to parents, many of them had been already suspicious that children hooked up on media would have a personality disorder, communication problems and difficulty in telling reality from virtual,” Tazawa said. “But they did not know what caused such problems.”

Since there are many parents who are themselves obsessed with television or text messaging, Saito said, educating the public remains a daunting task.