Transfixed little faces, empty stares, doll-like figures. The photographer Wolfram Hahn took pictures of German children between 3 and 12 years while watching TV. If you watch adults watching TV, you might still laugh at their oafish expressions. But if children sit in front of the tube for hours and hours, drowning in apathy, they look like eerie little puppets bereft of all spirit.

“Our modern media society has little demand for active comprehension. With its one way communication, TV rather puts the viewer into a state of mental paralysis,” explains Hahn. With his pictures, he tries to capture this state.

Nowadays, TV has become a normal part of most children’s everyday life. It is therefore all the more important that children’s television is not only suitable for children but also fulfils one essential children’s right: the right of participation. On the occasion of the International Children's Television Day on Sunday 9 December, UNICEF therefore called upon TV stations worldwide to attach greater importance to children.

Photo: Wolfram Hahn, Germany, Student, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam