Sophie, 2 years old, watches 1 hour of TV a day. This doubles her chances of developing attentional problems as she grows older.

Lubin, 3, watches 2 hours of TV a day. This triples his chances of being overweight.

Four-year-old Kevin watches violent youth programs like DragonBall Z. This quadruples his chances of having behavioral problems when he is in elementary school.

Silvia, age 7, watches 1 hour of TV a day. This increases her chances of becoming an adult without a diploma by more than a third.

Lina, 15, watches shows like Desperate Housewives. This triples her chances of having an unwanted early pregnancy.

Between the ages of 40 and 60, Yves watched 1 hour of TV a day. This increases his chances of developing Alzheimer's disease by one third.

Henri, 60 years old, watches 4 hours of TV a day. René, his twin, is satisfied with half that. Henri is twice as likely to die of a heart attack as René.

Every month, international scientific journals publish dozens of such results. For the specialists, including the author, there is no longer any doubt: television is a scourge. It has a profoundly negative influence on intellectual development, school performance, language, attention, imagination, creativity, violence, sleep, smoking, alcoholism, sexuality, body image, eating habits, obesity and life expectancy.

These facts are denied with fascinating aplomb by the audiovisual industry and its army of complacent experts. The strategy is not new: the tobacco companies had used it, in their time, to contest the carcinogenic character of tobacco...