Here we go again!

When I first looked at the recommendations of the Good Childhood report from the Church of England Children's Society I found a lot to agree with. Abolish SATs and league tables, extend parental leave, raise teachers' salaries - what good people these must be!

Then I come across this claptrap in their report on Lifestyle (see http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/report_summaries/14751.html):

"The more a child is exposed to TV and the internet the more materialistic they become, the worse they relate to their parents and the worse their mental health. The way firms are promoting sugary, salty high-fat foods to children is leading to rising levels of obesity. If current trends continue, by 2023 there will be a 54% rise in Type II diabetes and by 2051 life expectancy will fall five years. The most dangerous aspect of media content is the lurch to more and more violence, which we know can breed violent behaviours and increased mental illness. The biggest problem though is alcohol, with a quarter of 16-19 year olds now engaging in hazardous drinking."

Where to begin? Is there any point in stating yet again that none of these claims for media effects has ever been proven? No, because clearly for these folk they're just a matter of faith, and you can't argue with faith, can you? But why not be honest and up front about this faith, instead of pretending it's proper research evidence? I thought the Church wasn't too keen on concealing the truth?

It's interesting that the Catholic Church has been much more savvy about its approach to media and to education about the media (and by the way I am not a Catholic, though I am now glad that my grandson - seen in the pic above ruining his life by watching TV, according to the C of E faction - if he had to be baptised at all, has been baptised a Catholic). "Through proper education, these instruments of modern life [ie the media] can help men and women become more, not less, human" - said the Secretariat for Education in the Jesuit Curia in 1987. Sounds a bit more mature, doesn't it?