More violence in nursery rhymes

Humpty Dumpty and the Grand Old Duke Of York were today blamed for exposing children to more violence than an average evening in front of the TV.

After watching two weeks of TV before the 9pm watershed, doctors recorded almost five violent scenes per hour.

But there were more than 52 per hour of listening to nursery rhymes. Offenders included the Grand Old Duke Of York (engaged in an aggressive act); Humpty Dumpty (graphic depiction of an accident) and Rock-A-Bye-Baby (neglect of a child by placing its cradle in a highly dangerous location).

The tongue-in-cheek study is in Archives of Disease in Childhood.