That’s right, diaper set–crank up your YouTube because you’re NOT getting any TV in France. From the Francophiles who brought you rage against McDonalds comes no BabyFirst TV.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, BabyFirst TV is the oft-maligned television channel catering exclusively to children under the age of three. Lots of bright colors, simple themes, counting, language drills, you get the picture. Basically, BabyFirst TV purports to be yet another learning tool in a parent’s arsenal to try and get their kid ready for Harvard by the age of nine (because that’s the current goal, you know), but what it more likely amounts to is a colorful babysitter.

Seriously–I’m with the French on this one. That’s why the headline is in my symbolic and probably butchered half-remembered high school French. They say they’re doing this to limit children’s exposure to television, which has actually been shown to be harmful on more than one occasion. This is mostly related to the fact that children under three have very very rapidly developing minds, and the visual focus of television has a tendency to skew that, especially in high concentrations. For those out there who think I’m saying TV is bad, I’m clarifying by saying yes, it is, but only if you’re not potty-trained. Seriously–the negative effects of TV on brain development crash through the floor around the time the subject in question reaches the age of four.

I’m very much okay with France’s contra-television putsch. For crying out loud, parents, READ TO YOUR CHILDREN. I can’t emphasize this enough–read. READ.

READ TO YOUR CHILDREN ALREADY!

The effects of reading on children under the age of three, even to those who don’t have coherent language skills yet, are shown to be spectacularly beneficial to brain development. Even reading my screeds to the kiddies gives them a punch in the brain power department–anything at all will do. The continual exposure to spoken language from a single source with steadily light in three dimensions does literal wonders to brain development, and there’s actually some evidence that says reading to children STILL IN THE WOMB will also give children enhanced brain development before they even leave the womb.

Granted, it sounds downright Gestapo-esque for the French government to step in and say, we’re not allowing you even the CHOICE to have your children watch BabyFirst TV, but they’re actually making the right move here, even if it’s rather ham-fisted of them. I’m categorically against government meddling, but at least I can sympathize with their goals.

Making your child wait until he or she is four before hooking him or her on the Disney empire isn’t going to kill them, folks.

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