In 2006, a child advocacy group, the Campaign for aCommercial-Free Childhood, filed a complaint with the Federal TradeCommission targeting the marketing strategies of Baby Einstein. Thegroup believes that the company should not be able to say theirproducts inspire “logical thinking,” foster “the development ofyour toddler’s speech and language skills,” or give “your child ajump-start on learning” because the company has no research tosupport these statements (Mayer, 2006). Indeed, prior to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendedno television for children under 24 months (Committee, 2001).Further, recent parent surveys conducted by researchers at theUniversity of Washington Zimmerman, Christakis & Meltzoff, 2007found a negative association between the amount of time childrenspent watching videos and the size of their vocabulary. Please readthe original article and evaluate whether the research implies thatthe videos are causally “bad” for children. What are yourconclusions regarding correlation and causation?
