Baby Einstein co-founder seeks to review anti-TV studies

The co-founder of the Baby Einstein videos has gone to court to try to force the University of Washington to release records relating to two negative studies about the effects of TV viewing on young children.

William Clark, who filed his papers Jan. 11 in a Washington state court, said he has being trying for three years to force the researchers to reveal their methodology, but he claims the university has either denied his requests or failed to be fully responsive.

The university has refused his requests, claiming the disclosure of the records would cause competitive harm to its researchers and thus would constitute "public harm."

"All we're asking for is the basis for what the university has represented to be groundbreaking research," Clark said in a news release.

Clark, who said his primary motivation is to protect the legacy he and his wife have created, wants to have the chance to audit the two studies, which concluded that TV viewing by babies and young children could be harmful. The studies identified his videos by name.

Baby Einstein was founded in 1996 by Clark and his wife, Julie Aigner Clark. They sold the company to Disney in 2001, and have no financial stake in Baby Einstein or the sale of its products.

The two studies are entitled Associations Between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years, and Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children.

"Given that other research studies have not shown the same outcomes, we would like the raw data and analytical methods from the Washington studies so we can audit their methodology, and perhaps duplicate the studies, to see if the outcomes are the same," he said in a release.

Clark believes parents should be discriminating about the quality of media they allow their children to watch, and how that media is used. He cited Baby Mozart, Baby Shakespeare and Baby Van Gogh as examples of age-appropriate content that exposes babies and parents to classical music, poetry and impressionist art in a positive, engaging way.

Clark is not seeking any monetary gain but said any proceeds that may arise would be donated to breast cancer research.