The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed false advertising charges against the marketers of “Your Baby Can Read!,” a product that claimed in infomercials it could teach infants as young as nine months old to read.
The FTC says two of the three defendants in the case have agreed to settle the claim. The settlement prohibits the defendants from further use of the term Your Baby Can Read, and imposes a $185 million judgment against the defendants. (According to the FTC, the financial settlement will be suspended on payment of $500,000 because of the company’s “failing financial condition.”)
The FTC complaint says the defendants sold the program to parents and grandparents of children between the ages of three months to five years, charging about $200 for each kit, which contained videos, flash cards, and pop-up books.
The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to provide reliable scientific evidence for its claims that babies can learn to read using the program, or that children age 3 or 4 could learn to read such books as “Charlotte
