TV For Babies Expanding Despite Controversy

The buzz word for today's parenting experts seems to be "screen time". How much is too much? Should children be allowed to watch TV or play with an iPad at all? The minefield that is parenting has been made all the more difficult by the advent of portable entertainment devices that promise to help educate children, but also have the potential to sabotage their social skills and development. While the question of when and how to give your child "screen time" is still murky, there is one thing that most scientists and parenting experts agree on— the answer is none when your child is an infant.The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a report in October saying that children under the age of 2 get no educational benefit from any type of television. The report also said that studies show the effect of TV programs on infant brains is potentially negative, and that there are no known positives. However, that hasn't stopped BabyFirstTV from continuing to expand throughout the US. The channel, owned by BFTV LLC, is dominated by educational infant programming that focuses on colors, shapes and counting. BabyFirstTV is available as a premium channel through Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and is aimed at babies as young as six months old.The AAP argues that children learn by interacting with their families and that TV watching at such a young age could be detrimental to their development, but BabyFirstTV says that doesn't mean parents aren't using it to entertain their children. Preliminary research into the channel's viewership shows that one in every three moms watches the channel.BabyFirstTV is just one example of a growing market for younger viewers. The company will be competing with offerings from Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and a range of others. Children's programming has opened up a unique market for advertisers, making the field a controversial, but lucrative one.