BRITAIN is raising a square-eyed generation of kids who spend TWICE as long staring at a screen as they do sitting in a classroom.[Credits @ end]
And that’s hardly surprising as research shows six out of 10 FIVE- and SIX-YEAR-OLDS have their own TVs.
The study of habits of 3,000 British youngsters discovered that kids devote an average of 1,934 hours a year ogling a screen—a 1,000 more than they spend in lessons.
It also dwarfs the 1,277 hours children spend with their families.
The disturbing research found kids spend five hours 18 minutes a DAY in front of a screen. More than two and a half hours of this is in front of the telly, while one hour 18 minutes is spent surfing the net and nearly an hour and a half is devoted to playing on games’ consoles.
Kids from poorer backgrounds are MORE likely to have their own TVs with a staggering 98 per cent of five- and six-year-olds having a telly, compared to just under half of middle-class tots.
Most of the young children tuned in before primary school each day and then again before bedtime.
The study—for the book Consumer Kids—found kids’ bedrooms are shrines to the latest gadgets. Authors Ed Mayo and Dr Agnes Nairn discovered a third of young primary kids have a computer and worryingly, a quarter can surf the net in their bedrooms. Two-thirds have their own games’ consoles.
Half of all the primary school girls, and four in ten boys, have their own mobile phones. When kids hit their teens these figures shoot up, with nearly all of the girls having phones and nine in ten boys. Nine out of ten teenagers also have their own TVs.
Porn
Ed Mayo said: “Children in the past may have chilled in their bedroom by leafing through a book, playing with toys or chatting with friends.
“Today, children’s bedrooms have been transformed into hi-tech, intensive media bedsits.”
And he warns that firms use kids’ internet habits to target them with adverts. Some sites even offer kids free goods if they filled out surveys on their buying habits. Other unscrupulous sites reel kids in and then link them to gambling, dating and even porn sites.
Children have even been offered credit cards based on the information trail they have left on the net.
All these gadgets and toys come at a price—the UK kids’ industry is worth £99billion a year—up a third on the past five years. Kids themselves splash a staggering £12billion of their own pocket money. Disturbingly, £860million of this goes on sweets, soft drinks, crisps and snacks.
TV DAMAGES TOTS' BRAINS
By Dr Aric Sigman, Psychologist and Fellow of the Royal Societ of Medicine
The number of hours children spend in front of a screen is going up and up and up—and so is the size of their bodies.
We have the fattest children in Europe and the two things are not unconnected. When a child sits in front of a screen for long hours it slows their metabolism.
It also affects their ability to learn. Their social skills and psychological development are all related to the number of hours they spend in front of a screen.
These things are tools that can be used when brains have developed, but the early introduction and the sheer number of hours that very young children are doing is risking damage to their brains.
0 comments
Post a Comment