Several news articles on the Pediatrics study:
Reuters
Commercials Can Expose Kids to Violence
 
Wed Dec 8,11:19 AM ET

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction may have grabbed the most attention at the last Super Bowl, but a new study puts the spotlight on children's exposure to violence in commercials aired during that and other major sporting events.
 

Researchers found that of the total commercial breaks for 50 top-rated sports events in the U.S., half contained at least one commercial with violent content or otherwise "unsafe behavior."

Since many children watch sports on TV, this means that such commercials are a potential route of exposure to media violence that parents should know about, according to Dr. Robert F. Tamburro, the study's lead author.

He and his colleagues assessed 1,185 commercials, and found that 6 percent depicted violence, while 14 percent portrayed behaviors considered risky, such as riding a bike without a helmet or driving without a seatbelt.

Tamburro acknowledged that some may consider that 6-percent figure low, but he added that the main message from the findings is that parents should be aware that their children can be exposed to violence in what's seen as the innocuous realm of the sports commercial break.

Tamburro, who is now with the Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania, was at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis at the time of the study. He and his colleagues report the findings in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Concern over children's exposure to media violence is nothing new, with many studies linking such exposure to the risk of aggressive behavior. Movies, TV programs and video games have been the prime focus of this research, but commercials "sort of sneak between the cracks," Tamburro said.

He and his colleagues focused their study on commercials aired during major sports events, in part, because so many children watch sports -- 86 percent, by one estimate. They analyzed the content of commercials shown during the 50 most-watched sports events aired between September 2001 and September 2002 -- including the Super Bowl, World Series  and Winter Olympics.

Of the commercials the researchers judged to be violent, 48 percent were ads for movies and 38 percent were for TV programs.

The Super Bowl had by far the highest proportion of violent commercials, at 28 percent. At the other end of the spectrum was the Masters Golf Tournament, during which, Tamburro noted, there were no commercials depicting violence, or alcohol.

The study has its limitations, Tamburro said, one of them being the potential for "reviewer bias," since the researchers watched the commercials specifically looking for violence or unsafe behavior.

Still, he noted, the findings support guidelines already espoused by the American Academy of Pediatrics that, in general, parents should limit and supervise their children's TV time.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, December 2004.


Report examines violence in TV commercials


By Tara Burghart

The Associated Press, December 6, 2004

CHICAGO - A study of commercials during major sporting events found almost one in five displayed behavior deemed unsafe or violent, prompting the researchers to urge parents to limit and supervise their children's exposure to televised sports.

The nearly 1,200 commercials studied all aired before 9 p.m., primarily on network television.

The report, which appears in December's issue of Pediatrics, comes amid a crackdown by federal regulators on TV indecency, spurred in part by the Super Bowl halftime show on CBS last February during which singer Janet Jackson's breast was exposed. A steamy intro to "Monday Night Football" attracted criticism for ABC last month.

The study's lead researcher, Dr. Robert Tamburro, said he hopes to evaluate sexual content, along with alcohol use, in commercials in a future study. Tamburro is an associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey.

Both the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission can receive and investigate complaints about commercials. In March, the FTC expanded its consumer complaint system to categorize and track complaints about media violence, including advertising, but has not released any of the data.

An official with the American Advertising Federation criticized the study as subjective, relying on the judgment of two investigators.

Clark Rector, a senior vice president for government affairs at the AAF, said most sporting events draw an audience that is predominantly male and older than 21, which means advertisers design commercials for them.

Still, Rector said he did not think the numbers were that high for violent content, comprising 5.5 percent of the commercials analyzed.

"(The researchers) are taking a look at a minuscule amount of commercials during programming that's skewed very heavily toward adults," he said. "I think they're kind of looking for problems in the wrong places."

In response to the study, ABC released a statement saying the network "reviews every spot to ensure that behavior is safe and appropriate for our audience." CBS also said it has a division that reviews commercials to make sure they're airing in the appropriate time period.

NBC said it had no comment on the report, and Fox did not return a call for comment.

Tamburro said he got the idea for the research several years ago after watching the World Series with his 9-year-old son. Until then, he had viewed sports as "safe TV" for children, said Tamburro, who conducted the research while at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

"After the first inning, I saw some commercials and thought, 'I'm not so sure I want my son watching some of this,'" he said.

The commercials analyzed for the study aired during a yearlong period starting Sept. 1, 2001, during events including the Super Bowl, World Series, Masters golf championship, Daytona 500 car race, NFL games, NBA games, college basketball and the Winter Olympics.

Two physicians were assigned to look for either unsafe behavior or violent content. When they could not agree, a third investigator was brought in.

Unsafe behavior was defined as action that could have harmful consequences -- such as not wearing a helmet while bicycling or crossing a street without looking.

Violent behavior was defined as intentional physical content or the threat of such an action -- such as a fistfight, a gun being pointed at a person or a bomb exploding with people in the vicinity.

Of the 1,185 commercials, 14 percent displayed unsafe behavior and 5.5 percent depicted violence, according to researchers. The Super Bowl had the highest proportion of commercials with unsafe or violent behavior; the Masters had the least.

Of all the commercials depicting violence, 48 percent were advertisements for movies and 38 percent were commercials for television programs, according to the study.


Should TV Ads on Sports Shows Carry a 'PG' Rating?
By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter <b>By Ed Edelson</b><br><i>HealthDay Reporter</i>,

MONDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDayNews) -- One of every five commercials broadcast during major sporting events shows unsafe or violent behavior that might be inappropriate for children, a new study says.

"Our findings suggest that children's exposure to televised sports should be limited and supervised directly by parents, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics," said a report in the December issue of the academy's journal, Pediatrics.

The study was started by Dr. Robert Tamburro, an associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State's Milton Hershey School of Medicine, because of what he called "a very personal experience" -- watching the 2001 World Series.

Tamburro said he was struck by the high rate of violent or unsafe behavior in the commercials shown during the series. So he enlisted a group of colleagues who dutifully monitored 1,185 commercials aired during the 50 most-viewed sporting events for one year.

They looked for unsafe behavior, defined as "any action that could have harmful consequences or that contravened the injury-prevention recommendations of national organizations," and for "any intentional physical contact by an aggressor that had the potential to inflict injury or harm or the legitimate threat of such action."

Some of the more troubling examples depicted someone being shot or physically assaulted, the researchers said.

They found 66 commercials that met that definition of violence and 165 that displayed unsafe behavior. Such commercials were difficult to avoid; 158 of the 322 ads during the sporting events had at least one objectionable episode, the researchers said.

The Super Bowl had the highest percentage of those commercials, with 33 percent of them showing unsafe behavior and 28 percent depicting violence. College football bowl games came in a distant second, with 17 percent of the commercials showing unsafe behavior and 5 percent portraying violence.

Last on the list was the final round of the Masters Golf Championship, hardly must-see TV for children. It featured just one ad, shown three times, picturing a child riding a bicycle without a helmet.

The worst offenders were commercials for entertainment, either movies or television shows. Nearly two-thirds of the movie spots featured violence, as did 22 percent of ads for TV shows other than sporting events, the researchers found.

The goal of the study was just to make a count, not to advocate specific action by parents or television networks, Tamburro said. But, he added, the study "might heighten awareness by parents that sporting-event broadcasts have commercials that they may or may not want their children to see."

The journal report noted the Federal Trade Commission has limited the amount of commercial time in programs for children to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and less than 12 minutes an hour on weekdays. And the entertainment industry has taken steps to limit children's exposure to ads featuring violence.

"Unfortunately, these actions do not seem to apply to the commercials that are aired during televised sporting events," the report said.
 




TV ads during sports depict unsafe behavior and violence (Press Release)

 

HERSHEY, PA–Children watching commercials aired during televised sports events may frequently be exposed to violent and unsafe behavior, a study by a Penn State Children's Hospital physician suggests.

"Our study found that nearly one in five commercials during televised major sporting events depict unsafe or violent behavior," said Robert F. Tamburro, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, Penn State Children's Hospital, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. "Studies report that children commonly watch televised sports, and thus, the commercial content of these programs should be scrutinized since data suggests that media exposure increases children's risk-taking behavior."

The study titled, "Unsafe and Violent Behavior in Commercials Aired During Televised Major Sporting Events," appears in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Previous studies have shown that violence is often depicted in commercials aired during Major League Baseball, but Tamburro's study is the first to show that unsafe behaviors, such as riding a bicycle without a helmet, are depicted even more frequently.

The study team analyzed 1,185 commercials aired between Sept. 1, 2001, and Sept. 1, 2002, during the highest-rated televised sporting events. Sporting events included the Winter Olympics, National Football League playoff and regular season events, the National Basketball Association Western Conference Final Game, and the Major League Baseball World Series. The team reviewed only those commercials aired before 9 p.m., when children were more likely to be watching television.

Unsafe behavior was defined as any action that could have harmful consequences or that contradicted the injury prevention recommendations of national safety advocacy organizations. Violence was defined as any intentional physical contact by an aggressor that had the potential to include injury or harm, or the legitimate threat of such action.

Fourteen percent of the commercials depicted unsafe behavior and 6 percent depicted violence. Of the 322 commercial breaks reviewed in the study, 158, or 49 percent, contained at least one commercial that showed unsafe behavior or violence. Forty-eight percent of commercials that contained violence were for movies and an additional 38 percent were for television programs. Commercials for automobiles contained the highest number of depictions of unsafe behaviors.

"The Super Bowl had the highest proportion of commercials that contained unsafe or violent behaviors and the Masters Gold Tournament had no violent commercials at all and had only one commercial, which was aired three times, that included unsafe behavior," Tamburro said.

Some reports estimate that American children view 360,000 commercials before graduating from high school. Although rating systems are in place for television programs and movies to warn parents about adult content and violence, no such rating or preview systems are in place to warn parents about commercials. Moreover, it is plausible that parents might consider sporting events aired before 9 p.m. to be safe and free of such content.

"Our findings suggest that children's exposure to televised sports should be limited and directly supervised by parents, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for television viewing in general," Tamburro said. "The movie and television industries should be encouraged to adopt models for commercial sponsorship of major sporting events that include little or no unsafe or violent content."

 

###

The study was conducted while Tamburro was at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn. Study co-authors were: Patricia L. Gordon, M.D., St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, James P. D'Apolito, M.D., Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, and Scott C. Howard, M.D., St. Jude Children's Research Hospital