TV makes you bad

A study carried out at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US analysed 2,707 children aged two and five, based on information from their parents and found that children aged five who watch television for 2 hours a day are more likely to suffer behavioural problems and poor social skills – fresh evidence that too much television can harm children’s development. However, children who were weaned off high levels of television-viewing were at little risk of having their development affected.

16% watched two or more hours daily only when they were two, 15% only when they were five, and 20% maintained their two-hour viewing habit over the three years. Health experts were most concerned about the children starting to watch television for prolonged periods at the age of five.  The study also found that 41% of the children involved had a television in his or her bedroom.

Earlier this year in the UK, a psychologist told MPs that letting young children watch just one and a half hours of TV a day could put them at risk of health problems, including attention-deficit disorder, autism and obesity. Dr Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and member of the Institute of Biology, said “Between the ages of nought and three, particularly when children are acquiring language, their brains are going through rapid development and are being physically shaped, like a piece of clay, in response to what they are exposed to. “Key stages of development are language acquisition and social skills and if they’re displaced at this stage, they may be irreplaceable.’

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