top of page
Search
  • Jonathan Joffe

Screen time for children


Children should be spending less than 1 hour on digital screens and no less than 1 hour outdoors playing.


The World Health Organization has issued a first ever guidance on how much screen time children under five years of age should get; not very much, and none at all for babies under one age.

Kids under five years of age should not spend more than one hour looking at screens each day and less is better.

The guideline also emphasise that young kids need to physically active and get enough sleep, indicating the need for such habits to develop at an early age as they go a long way towards preventing obesity and diseases later in life.

This announcement follows the recent Australian research which found that children need to spend more than an hour and preferably at least two hours a day outside to help prevent myopia (short-sightedness) from developing and progressing. Increasing exposure to outdoor light is key in reducing the myopia epidemic in children.

Take home message: no more than one hour on screens and no less than one hour outdoors playing.


36 views0 comments
bottom of page