Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
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Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
posted at 9/10/2012 9:40 AM BST
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 1436
First: 7/4/2011 Last: 17/5/2013 |
An new article in the Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at the amount of time spent by children viewing tv screens or media screens. It claims that “the average ST [screen time] in the home for young British adolescents is 6.1 h/day, and this is rising significantly.6 Canadian children spend 7.8 h/day, and American children 7.5 h: 55% of their waking lives.” The US Department of Health and Human Services’ main aims is to decrease the number of children between 0 and 2 years viewing tv and to reduce the time spent watching tv for 2-18 year olds to 2 hours per day. Currently, there are no similar guidelines for the UK or EU. The Australian Department of Health and Ageing has issued similar guidelines, as has the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), adding: ‘media—both foreground and background—have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years.’ The references claim that this increases sedentary behaviour and reduces the amount of time for active play, social interaction and language development. Furthermore, another reference in the paper claims that “Although infant/toddler programming might be entertaining, it should not be marketed as or presumed by parents to be educational,” and that parents should spend more time trying to educate their children. The article then looks at the various risks of screen time, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), not to mention. Increased TV viewing was also shown to increase BMI and it claims that preschool children who are fatter and less active in their early years will suffer further down the line. Then there is also the debate over what all this increase in screen time is doing to the brain neurologically. There have been suspicions but there is not an awful lot of science. Perhaps the most startling recommendation of this article is that because 80% of an adult brain size growth occurs during a child’s first 3 years, that screen time should be minimised or even banned until that age of 3 years old, in order to protect it from physical and mental harms. http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2012/09/04/archdischild-2012-302196.full What do you think? Is this a worry? What are the other options? Are parents too busy? |
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Re: Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
posted at 9/10/2012 9:54 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1177
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 16/5/2013 |
Banned? No. Rationed? Yes. Recently a non-medical friend asked for my advice regarding her 3 year old daughter who wouldn't go to sleep, and when she did woke up with nightmares, every night. I asked if she was watching TV before bedtime - "Of course, it helps settle her". I simply suggested no screens for the last hour of the night, to allow her daughter's mind to 'settle', and see how that went. Next morning she e-mailed to tell me that her daughter had gone straight to sleep, and no waking. I think we underestimate the impact bright fast-moving images have on our brains when we're tired. Trying to sleep straight after playing the XBox takes time, and I always dream of zombies and aliens. We have 2 no-screen days a week in our house, and no screens for the last hour of th day before bedtime. But no screens at all? Without something to distract the kids for a wee while, once in a while, I'd have gone bonkers, I suspect.
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Re: Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
posted at 9/10/2012 1:44 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 23
First: 21/10/2010 Last: 6/12/2012 |
*Reduce* it to 2 hours a day?!? That'd be a *really* heavy day of watching telly in our house. How are these kids watching 6 hours a day?!? Aren't they at school? It must literally be on for every waking hour that they are in the house?! Always amazed at these studies that show such a high number of hours of telly watched. But ban telly? Seems more than a little extreme - there's plenty of good telly and as the previous poster says - half an hour of CBeebies while I make the tea doesn't really seem that horrific.
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Re: Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
posted at 9/10/2012 2:16 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3037
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 18/5/2013 |
I do agree with DundeeChest. We should certainly avoid late hours TV viewing by children under three years of age. This is the age when the impact of audiovisuals can have positive or mostly negative effects on development of the central nervous system. |
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Re: Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
posted at 9/10/2012 10:47 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 7
First: 28/3/2012 Last: 14/3/2013 |
Moderation is the key, and of course variety. The same way a good diet is a varied one cognitive development requires varied stimulation/activities. I am not sure if parents being busier is a good enough excuse for children watching silly hours of TV. It could be argued that TV watching requires low level processing whereas reading a book requires greater exercising of cognitive abilities? See Roald Dhal's poem 'Television'. |
Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » Should children under three years old be banned from watching TV?
