More bad science and telly-bashing combined in today’s Telegraph. So, “children who watch television are more likely to be bullied”. In my school the opposite was true. One kid didn’t have a TV. So we kicked him.

Of course, the report in question doesn’t actually conclude that “children who watch television are more likely to be bullied”. But it does seem to conclude that toddlers who are allowed to watch more than two hours of television a day become fatter and more stupid than other children. And this I can well believe. But does this actually make TV the villain? Unfortunately what is missing here is what we researchers would call a concomitant variable. Perish the thought, but could it be that the sort of parents who let their toddlers watch more than two hours of telly a day are, regardless of this, likely to raise kids who are fatter and more stupid than their peers? Just a thought.

Stuart