Too much screen time risks health of children

[AThingInYourLife]

from today's Guardian

"By the age of seven, a child born today in the UK will have spent an entire year of 24 hours a day looking at TV, computer and video game screens. By the age of 18, that will be three whole years. According to a review of studies carried out around the world on the effect of screen time on children, they could be seriously damaging their health."

Is any of this new or interesting.

I don't let my kids watch TV under 2.5 or so, but they still watch at CM's etc.

I just saw the same story on the BBC's news site. My DD isn't very interested in TV, aside from a handful of adverts (she's only a year old). However, she does enjoy playing with my iPad. I wonder if this study includes the use of educational games/apps and ebooks. Also, I wonder if older children using an ereader would be counted in the study.

Mine's dead then.. :)

I find these headlines profoundly unhelpful. What does the study actually find? Is it looking at a screen that is harmful, watching TV specifically, or just being inactive (so reading a book just as bad)? Have they discovered correlation or causation?

There seems to be a lot of thoughtless moralizing about TVs and computers, and I one can waste a lot of time on them. But they are also powerful and flexible tools. If we start to talk more about what we do with them instead of treating all screen time as equivalent we might be better able to find a balance that enhances our lives.

Dr Aric Sigman, who wrote the report, is known for taking a less than impartial approach to the evidence.