American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is a professional organization of pediatricians committed to achieving the organization's mission of attaining “optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults” (2005; http://www.aap.org). It currently has 60,000 members. An essential way the AAP has fulfilled its advocacy role in recent years is through Media Matters, a national campaign dedicated to promoting awareness of media's impact on young audiences among other physicians, parents, and children.

The AAP was founded in June 1930 by a group of 35 physicians in Detroit, Michigan, who specialized in health issues affecting children. When the AAP was established, the notion that children have special developmental and health needs was new and progressive. Preventive health practices that are now associated with child care, such as immunizations and regular checkups, were only beginning to change the practice of treating children as younger versions of adults.

The AAP employs 350 individuals, supports 59 chapters in the United States and 7 in Canada, and works to educate and prevent medical and health problems worldwide. One way in which the AAP is able to reach beyond America's borders is through more than 1,000 international members from more than 60 countries, and the group has been able to establish connections with similar societies in Mexico, Brazil, and India. The AAP also publishes original research in social, economic, and behavioral areas and supports the funding of outside research endeavors relating to children's health and well-being.

One of the many functions that the AAP performs is making recommendations regarding the media's impact on children and adolescents. One AAP recommendation that has been the subject of much attention is its position that children 2 years of age and younger should not be exposed to any screen media, because the potential implications of such exposure remain unclear. In a 2004 study published by Gentile and colleagues, more than 8 in 10 pediatricians (84%) reported that TV watching has a negative effect on infants' and preschool-age (parallels school-age, per Websters) children's brain development, although the study also revealed that pediatricians are often unaware of the AAP recommendations and generally recommend that parents limit media use to less than 2 hours each day.

The Media Matters campaign was launched in 1997 and is intended to raise the public's consciousness about the influence of media (television, movies, computer and video games, the Internet, advertising, popular music, etc.) on child and adolescent health. The organization understands that a great deal of the information to which children have access comes from various media outlets and that the information children receive from media sources can impact their thinking on public health issues. Subjects addressed by this campaign include the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs; aggression and violence; sex and sexual exploitation; and obesity and poor nutrition. An essential component of this campaign is to teach the basic skills of media literacy and critical thinking about media as well as to encourage people to become more discriminating about their media use habits.

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