STEVEN P. SHELOV, M.D.,M.S. Chairman of Pediatrics Maimonides Medical Center Professor of Pediatrics S.U.N.Y. Downstate 

We used to value our children more than anything else in our lives. We brought them Into this world, fed them, diapered them, responded to their cries (even If we were not always sure of what caused them), encouraged their growth and intelligence. showed them how to love, by example and as one of our objects, and gradually weaned them on their way to becoming responsible members of the next generation. We took pride in our parenting, tried to do the best by them. certainly made our share of mistakes but overall, did pretty well, all things considered. One of our primary roles as caretakers for our children as they grew was to teach them to be cautious of strangers. Nature gave them a natural wariness of strangers toward the latter half of their first year of life, but we reinforced that with our cautious statements of, "come right home and don't speak to anyone you don't know." So what has happened to those basic Instincts of ours? What has allowed us as parents (for advertising executives or creative, people are most often parents) to create things as strangers to attempt to Influence a group of children who they don't know In order to affect their thinking?

Children become the victims, the pawns, the objects of intent to influence that before we know it, they are spouting jingles, catchy phrases, supposed data, and other derivatives of what they see and hear. Advertising targets children and adolescents with messages that are believed to be true and harmful to their health. Children view thousands of commercials in the course of their life that perpetrate myths of health and well being but actually promote poor and dangerous life styles. Thousands of adolescents, exposed to alcohol and cigarette advertising, model those messages to the detriment of their own positive health.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has developed a number of policy statements from Its former Committee on Communications, now known as the Committee on Public Education, which often don't get much publicity, except for the week they come out in the press, but they are thoughtful and carefully researched assessments of the state of unwarranted media/commercial Influence on our children. Several of the more significant recommendations that summarize the position of the AAP, representing $3,000 of our pediatricians across the country and abroad. are the following: 

• Toy based programs should be more carefully regulated. 

• Strict limit on ads for children. 

• Strict content regulation of "educational programs." 

• Ban on all alcohol and cigarette advertising targeting to children. 

Why do the baby doctors (as the congressmen often refer to us when we give testimony on the Hill) feel so strongly about this, strong enough to make policy, print It, and talk about It? They are based on the principles that children exposed to Influences that change their behavior, thinking, attitudes, In ways that they (or their parents depending on the age) would not chose to take place, is a violation of their right to chose and a true coercion (n the wont sense.

I have been a pediatrician for almost 30 years, edited and published 12 books, Including the AAP Child Care Book for parents, and had the privilege of educating over 1200 pediatricians who are out there practicing today. Part of our role is to voice, with alarm, the growing exposure of children to the undue influences of advertising distracted at children. We would not allow strangers in person into our homes to tell our children how they should act, what they should wear, what they should eat, and in essence what they should believe; why do we allow it through commercialism and the media. It is long overdue that we increase our vigilance rather then let up, as the greed factor has increased with rising revenue numbers and greater incentives.

One of the credos of the oath I took as a physician 30 years ago was, above all, do no harm. A credo that pediatricians must take for the benefit of our children is, above all, do no harm to the children. if they are to stay our most precious commodities, and if the now too glib statement of our "children are our future", is really to be our motto, we must help them secure a world that preserves their thinking and behaving from being subject to the Influences they don't chose. To do less violates their trust in us, and our respect for both our past and our future. Thank you.