CMCH Director,
Dr. Michael Rich combined his passion for media, health, and kids in a new role:

“Ask the Mediatrician”.

The driving force behind this new role is to answer parent’s questions about media and health. His goal is to provide parents with science-based answers and practical solutions that can help children use media in ways that can enrich their development.

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From cyberbullying and violent video games to social networking and sexting, parents are overwhelmed by the new media environment and how it affects their children. To help parents navigate this new and changing landscape, CMCH is excited to announce the launch of

Ask the Mediatrician.

The goal of Ask the Mediatrician is to provide parents and caregivers practical solutions about media and health that can help families use media in ways that can enrich children’s development.

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Assessing the effects of media on young children’s health and development is far from easy. Research has linked TV to reduced attention however, some major funding agencies are not supporting media-effects research in order to bring awareness to this issue as a major health concern in children’s lives.

CMCH Director, Michael Rich, argues that despite research which shows compelling evidence,“the problem is that as a society we have not seen this as enough of a health concern that we’ve decided to invest in it.”

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Are cell phones safe for children’s health? A petition titled the Children’s Wireless Protection Act is asking Congress to mandate that all cell phone product packaging, infrastructures that carry Wi-Fi signals, and other EMR related product packaging carry warning labels. The petition also requests that Wi-Fi in public schools be replaced with hard-wired Internet access.

The medical community has been divided over whether or not cell phones pose health risks. CMCH Director, Dr. Michael Rich argues that if there are any health risks, such as radiation exposure, “children are likely at the highest risk because the skull is thinner than it is in adult life and the brain is still actively building itself.”

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