Health hazards of TV watching: Expert prescribes daily ration for kids

2 May, 2007: The duration of television watching by children should be confined to a daily ration, an expert in the United Kingdom has recommended.

Dr Aric Sigman, psychologist and an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, has told the British Members of Parliament that the government must act to reduce television watching among children since too much TV increases the risk of health and learning problems.

Researches have shown that watching television excessively is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioral problems and increased obesity in children. Experts have connected TV watching in childhood to raised cholesterol levels, obesity and smoking in adulthood.

Dr Sigman, who was speaking at a ‘Children and the Media’ conference at the House of Commons, said parents be given guidelines and stressed that ‘screen media’ is a major concern in public health. He insisted that children under the age of 3 should not watch television at all and that there should be no TVs in bedrooms of children. New mothers should be warned of the possible effects.

According to Dr Sigman, screen media must now be considered a major public health issue, and reducing viewing must become the new priority for child health. Successive governments, he added, were quite willing to advise on personal matters – ranging from how many apples and oranges we should eat a day, daily salt intake, units of alcohol, and passive smoking, to our sexual habits and how and when we should smack our children. While popular phrases such as ‘striking a balance’ or ‘everything in moderation’ may sound sensible, one of the main obstacles is the vagueness of the terms ‘moderation’ and ‘excessive.’

Most of the damage linked to TV watching seems to occur beyond watching one to one and a half hours a day, irrespective of the quality of the program. Yet, the average child watches three to five times this amount, Dr Sigman said.

At present, British population watches television for more hours per day and reads less than any other nation in Europe.

Dr Aric Sigman’s recommended daily allowance for children’s TV watching is:

* Children under 3: No screen exposure.
* Children aged 3 to 7: 30 minutes to one hour a day.
* Children aged 7 to 12: One hour a day.
* Children aged 12 to 15: One and a half hours a day.
* Children aged 16 and above: Two hours.

However, Greg Childs, from the Save Kids TV campaign, maintains that it is “unrealistic and unnecessary” to ban television for children aged under 3 and suggests that, instead, efforts should focus on improving the quality of programs.