• by Laurie Sullivan , August 17, 2007

A letter writing campaign organized by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) urges Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger to release evidence that children benefit from video content produced and distributed by Baby Einstein, a subsidiary Disney acquired in 2001.

The campaign launched Thursday by the CCFC addresses findings in research released last week by the University of Washington. Led by UW Professor Frederick Zimmerman, the research published in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests infants learn six to eight fewer new vocabulary words for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, compared with babies who never view the content. Study co-authors also include UW Professor Dimitri Christakis, and UW Director Andrew Meltzoff.

Earlier this week, Disney called on the University of Washington to retract the allegations made in the research, which named Baby Einstein and stated that "baby DVDs, videos may hinder, not help infants' language development." The university refused.

The CCFC asks concerned citizens in an e-mail blast to go online and sign their names to a pre-written letter addressed to Iger requesting that Disney release research demonstrating Baby Einstein videos are "beneficial to babies or publicly acknowledge that no such research exists." A Disney spokesperson looked into the matter but could not comment by press time.

In an automated response to those who send a letter from the CCFC site, Disney replies with an e-mail voicing the company's opinions: "After thoroughly analyzing the report, we have serious concerns about its methodology, and ensuing assumptions" and "We strongly believe that parent-child interaction is one of the most crucial elements to the development of a healthy and happy baby during the first three years of life, and have based our entire product line on that well-accepted principle."

Mounting evidence suggests passively sitting in front of a television screen can hinder children's development. A paper published last spring by the same researchers showed that by three months old 40% of infants are regular viewers of television, DVDs or videos, and by two years old this number jumps to 90%.

Susan Linn, psychologist at Judge Baker Children's Center and director and co-founder of the CCFC, says the non-profit organization filed a complaint more than a year ago against Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and BabyFirstTV for false and deceptive marketing.

That complaint now under consideration with the Federal Trade Commission has prompted Disney to take some action. "We've noticed Disney made some changes to address our concerns, but they haven't notified us," Linn says. "The problem is, Disney has an eight to 10 years reputation that they are an education product, and we'd like them to either issue a statement retracting that claim or produce research showing the products' benefits."

Linn says the CCFC does not have the financial backing to run print, television and radio ads to let people know they can have a voice by going online and electronically signing the letter to Disney's Iger, so it is relying on media, word of mouth and an e-mail list of more than 16,000 newsletter participants.