Taiwan Passes Law To Limit Child Gaming: Children & Glasses

[nehagupta]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/11373521/Taiwan-orders-parents-to-limit-childrens-time-with-electronic-games.html

Not that more laws are the answer, but maybe Taiwan has a point.

Meanwhile, the optometrist says prescriptions are the only way to fix kids eyesight. And our kids get more iPad and iPhone and games, and nobody seems to have a problem with it.

Do we want to chat about kids and glasses, and a bit of prevention and alternatives?

There's nothing about eyesight in the linked article: it's all about potential Internet additiction.

As you want to chat about the need for glasses, do you have any links about what eye problems are most prevalent in children (presumably in the developed world)?

My least screen-time DC is the only one with a prescription for glasses.

You're right! The article is interesting in that finally there is some serious thought being put into the effects of all this technology on our young ones.

Eyesight is one of the things that very much affects kids when they spend so much time up close. The most prevalent problem by far is myopia: healthland.time.com/2012/05/07/why-up-to-90-of-asian-schoolchildren-are-nearsighted/

Up to 90% prevalence of glasses in school children!

bjo.bmj.com/content/85/5/521.extract

Some places are taking this seriously, though the UK (and most of Europe) just takes the tax money from the huge profit increases that (mainly French) lens manufacturers are reporting.

There are studies suggesting a genetic component making some more susceptible than others. Meanwhile though, I see more and more mothers bringing their children to me, with myopia diagnosis.

And once you put your kids in glasses, their eyesight health is basically ruined.

I think I detect a conflict of interest here. Are you a practitioner who claims to "cure" children of their short sightedness?

My son is blind without his spectacles. He was blind before he got them, not after. What exactly is it you're trying to prove here?