Read this if you dare.

[Spidermama]

This is a brilliant book. Well researched facts and brilliantly written. I haven't totally managed to stop my two year old from watching telly but it's down to an absolutel maximum of two hours a week in emergencies.

Since reding the book my other three old kids hardly watch any TV and they don't even ask either.

This book has done to our TV habits what Alan Carr did to my smoking habit.

People get very defensive about this subject but I urge everyone to read this extraordinary book. I'm really glad to have had my eyes opened.

Television 'is responsible for over half of all rapes and murders in the industrialised world'? Really?

Customers who bought this also bought 'Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It' by Sue Palmer

I don't think I'll bother, thanks. Sounds like a load of hysterical tosh.

How ironic that I've seen Aric Sigman on lots of TV programmes!

It sounds fucking brilliant to me, I just might buy a copy. We'd been coming around to this way of thinking in any case.

I don't know about "hysterical tosh" edam, but there's more than a touch of the shrill about your post

I think I'll ask my bookshop to get it for me. Not that we're great television watchers anyway, but I thought the synopsis looked helpful.

Also thought that the Sue Palmer book looked interesting too!

Edam it's based entirely on scientific research. It's not Aric Sigmund's opinion. May I presume to deduct, from your, erm, passionate response that your kids watch a good deal of telly.

What Amazon choose to link it with has nothing to do with it's content. Although I quite fancy the Sue Palmer book you mention.

Greensleeves you're clearly such an intelligent and thoughtful woman. Happy mothers day btw. A day which no doubt brings much food for thought to you.

I have a feeling that the book will be largely preaching to the converted or half converted. It's been interesting to note the heightened reactions, like edam's, which it has promted. I've seen some presenters almost foaming at the mouth whilst interviewing Dr Sigmund about this book.

TBH, I can't see any heightened reactions so far, but I'm glad you have found the book helpful.

I thought the accusation of 'hysterical tosh' was somewhat knee jerk VioletB. Perhaps I'm old fashioned.

But then you wouldn't expect a book like this to be well-received by journalists, would you?

Ah, but I have no particular views on the book, and no emotional investment in it, so I just saw Edam's comment as the opinion of someone who is clearly not convinced by the theories it projects, and who is clearly not going to read it.

"hysterical tosh' is my interpretation of someone who claims TV is resonsible for half the murders in the world. Reasonable deduction, I would have thought. Nothing to do with how much TV ds watches or not.

I also don't believe that just because somone is a scientist (and being a psychologist doesn't necessarily mean you are at the cutting edge of brain research) that everything they say is true. Especially not if they are making extreme claims that are clearly dubious in terms of science.

You can doubt someone's plainly alarmist arguments without it being to do with a personal agenda. I always thinkg people who immediately shout 'ooh, you must be feeling guilty' to anyone who doubts what they are saying can't be feeling very secure about what they are saying.

With you all the way edam.

Weren't people being raped and muredered before TV was invented?

The figures are frightening: Britons currently spend an average of four hours a day watching television - that's more than a 24-hour day per week. Television has become our national obsession: it is our main source of common experience; it affects the way we think and act and, according to psychologist and broadcaster Dr Aric Sigman, its hold over our lives is so significant that, in some families, the television has greater influence over children than parents do. In this insightful and shockingly perceptive assessment of our nation's relationship with the small screen, Dr Aric Sigman reveals for the first time the alarming reality of what television is actually doing to us physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially. He provides evidence as to how television contributes to the rising global obesity rate by actually slowing our metabolic rate, stunts our children's brain development, and is responsible for over half of all rapes and murders in the industrialised world. Yet "Remotely Controlled" is much more than an indictment of the dangers of watching television. Sigman aims to draw our awareness to the glaring imbalance in our lives and show us how we can re-establish control away from the remote control. This book is a compelling read which will cause us all to take a step back and reassess our viewing habits.

have copied and pasted the synopsis from amazon.......

so this will allow rapists and murderers, to say, 'sorry your honour, i am mitigating what i did by the fact my mum let me sit in front of the tv for 4 hours a days when i was a kid......'

kids can watch TV and and still be taught right from wrong and still have morals and ethics...which will be instilled (or not) if the parents are so inclined, whether or not they watch TV or not.....

i am with edam on this one

I'm with Edam too - rapes and murders happened just as much (if not more - who knows??) before TV was invented

Mind you Granny Murray makes me feel like I want to punch her - so there could be some truth in it???

Like Lulu said, I don't think TV watching is the issue, it is the lack of morals and guidance in children that leads to obesity, bad behaviour etc.
My kids watch a fair amount of TV but are bright active healthy and well behaved.
These sorts of books are tosh.

With DevDaff all the way on Granny Murray too!

A bit of TV is OK IMHO as long as you have the rest sorted out - healthy meals, healthy exercise and other activities to do.

This morning I was up with DS (had my lie-in yesterday!) and between 8 and 11 we read books, played with bricks, went to the park and playground, and watched one tv programme, telletubbies on teleport (i.e. recorded, not just blobbing in front of whatever was on...) I think all those activities were good for DS. He loves teletubbies, loves naming them, copying their dances etc. The issue isn't necessarily TV itself being evil - it's how you use it.

seriously, spidey, can you tell us what his evidence is for the statement 'tv is responsible for over half of all rapes and murders in the industrialised world'?
i read an excerpt of his book and i've seen him interviewed about it but i've never had that bit fully explained to me.

there is more on TV than mindless drivel....DS loves animal planet, how it's made and other informative, educational, mind expanding docs....and of course some cartoons..! it is all balanced .... that is my responsibility...

Isn't it a bit hypocritical of the author, considering he made his name by appearing on 'This Morning', and can be seen on those dubious programmes that claim to have insight into why a certain celebrity snorts a certain substance or indulges in a certain sexual activity?

I'll let you know when (and if) I get to that bit Aitch.

Lulumama - you are the voice of reason!

i think that the poiints he makes is about the electronic nature of the visual stimulus, that it alters very plastic brains of young children.

that it's a submissive transaction as well is not good as i recall and the fast cuts of today's programmes put the child into a hypnotic trance are also damaging. how that makes it responsible for half of the world's ills is a mystery, however. (i thought crime rates went up during power cuts? )

there are no doubt some interesting points but he's a towering pompous prick of a man who still hasn't forgiven raj persaud for nicking his richard and judy gig. all i can say is that if i was never convinced by his reasoning when he was dishing out advice to daft morning telly wifies i find it hard to take him seriously now...

i do so enjoy raj...now, he is the voice of reason!!! isn;t aric doing on of those 'i'll teach you how to bonk better; reality shows or some such?