Child Activists Slam Sprout

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness are criticizing cable TV network Sprout, likening it to a TV version of a sleeping pill for toddlers, while the network's president said it was, instead, a chance for parents and kids to unwind together. In a letter to Sprout's president, CCFC asked the cable and satellite channel to stop luring young kids by misleading parents into believing that the shows would help get their kids "wind down after a busy day.... We urge you to stop packaging your evening program as a sleep aid for children," said CCFC. CCFC which comprises more than two dozen kids advocacy groups including the Action Coalition for Media Education, Alliance for Childhood, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, argues that for very young children TV viewing can produce irregular sleep patterns and says it isn't so hot for older kids either.