In order to protect children from the bad influence of TV programs, the first thing parents think of is to turn off the TV directly. But a new study shows that this measure may not be effective enough. Facts have proved that if children are exposed to these media indirectly, such as their friends watching TV programs and then passing them to their ears, it may be even more unfavorable for them to maintain a healthy figure.

Researchers from the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School in the United States have verified the relationship between media intervention and eating disorders among some adolescent girls in Fiji. Their research results are beyond people's expectation. The results show that even if these children don't even have a TV at home, their chances of developing eating disorders will increase.

In fact, the most important factor affecting teenagers' eating habits is actually how many TV programs their friends and classmates watch. On the contrary, the researchers found that children's direct contact with TV media, that is, watching TV programs by themselves or with their parents, did not have a particularly prominent impact on their eating behavior when they considered factors such as urban residence and body shape.

In other words, it seems that watching TV in the small circle of children's lives has a greater impact on them than simply watching TV programs. In fact, compared with watching TV by yourself, the influence of public opinion caused by friends watching TV can increase the probability of a girl having serious eating disorder symptoms by 60%.

Anne Becker, the first author of the paper and deputy director of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, said that in terms of the influence of media on eating behavior, this study quantified the negative impact of children's social networks for the first time.

"Our research results show that social networks have a great influence on diet pathology. If parents want to protect their children from the influence of the media, it is not enough to just turn off the TV. If parents want to intervene, it is best to intervene among their children's peers. " Becker said.

Becker hopes that their research can attract the attention of the media, that the media can launch responsible TV programs, and that the relevant departments can supervise the content of the programs to prevent children from being poisoned by "second-hand" TV programs.

Becker said: "But so far, it is still difficult to get people who use TV as mass entertainment to sit at the negotiating table and think about how their TV programs can avoid hurting children."

From 65438 to 0995, Becker conducted a study in some island countries. She found that with the introduction of local radio and television programs, the proportion of eating disorders among local young girls is increasing.

In 2007, Becker chose Fiji for his second study, mainly because since the 1990s, televisions have gradually entered this country, and the Internet and paper media have spread more and more widely. In contrast, other remote countries did not have facilities such as electricity, cell phone signals, television or the Internet. All these conditions make Fiji an ideal country to study the influence of media on diet.

Another feature that interests Fiji scientists is that the traditional culture of this country is beautiful with a strong figure, which is in sharp contrast with the ideas advocated by some popular western TV programs such as Beverly Hills 902 10, The Story of Teddy Boy, Flying Over Infinite Love and so on.

Becker said that girls will regard actresses in TV dramas as their idols and notice that slim figure usually brings success to the characters in the drama. This concept is one of the reasons why eating disorders among Fijian teenagers are becoming more and more frequent.

But it was not until this study that people found out to what extent this influence came from the social group where teenagers lived.

Nicholas christakis, a professor of social medicine in the Department of Health Policy at Harvard Medical School, studied the spread of health problems in social circles. "The indirect influence of the media on teenagers is more significant. Although this result is interesting, it is not unexpected. " Christakis said, "Most people don't care what the media say, but they will pay more attention to the opinions of their friends. This is actually a filtering effect of human social networks. "

Becker said that although the study is aimed at female students in Fiji, it seems to be far from the United States. But it should attract the attention of people of other races and conduct further investigation and research.