More than two hours screentime a day could damage children’s brain development

Children who spend more than two hours a day looking at a screen have worse memory, language skills and attention span, a landmark study has found. The research, which involved children aged between eight and 11 found that those with higher amounts of recreational screen time on smart phones and playing video games had far worse cognitive skills across a range of functions.

The research, published by the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, tracked the daily habits of 4,500 children who were then asked to carry out detailed cognition tests. The study found that more than two hours a day of recreational screen time was associated with worse working memory, processing speed, attention levels, language skills and executive function.

The study of US children, led by the University of Ottawa, questioned thousands of parents and children on their daily habits - including time spent sleeping, using smartphones and other devices, and levels of physical activity.

Overall cognition skills were best among the one in 20 children who got between nine to 11 hours sleep, less than two hours recreational screen time, and at least an hour’s exercise daily.

These children did around five per cent better in the tests than the average child. Significantly, the study isolated screen time as the likely key factor. Children who were glued to their screens for less than two hours a day saw performance around four per cent better than the average among their group, regardless of other habits.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/26/two-hours-screentime-day-could-damage-childrens-brain-development/

Not surprised at all with the findings.

And it's just another thing that shows that we've let corporations hijack our children's futures, because the government didn't make those smartphones and tablets, and five million games and shows to consume on them.

We apparently, as a society, have no problem with people hurting our children as long as people are making money from it. It's disgusting.

These people distract our kids from some of the most important things in life and divert it to the most trivial things in life. And we let them.

Never a truer word Ben !

Yep, these studies are simply confirming what many have been suggesting over the past decade...

Even before computers, tablets and smartphones became so easily affordable and common, there were plenty of lazy parents who would rely on televisions as mindless "babysitters" as they went on with other tasks around the home.. Made even worse by so many parents today living in around crowded cities, and/ or too scared of the modern world to allow older children to even venture outside.

And, as well as "reductions in cognitive skills..", over the past couple of decades there has also been noticeable declines in many school leavers knowing such relatively simple "skills" as reading analogue clocks, doing mental arithmetic, using printed street guides and telephone books, using a map and compass, composing hand-written essays and reports, let alone applying "critical analysis" in simple problem solving -- basically because young students are being introduced to computers and digital devices too early in the piece, and then are all-too-often allowed to progress along without first "mastering the basics".

*THE Ben Reilly* wrote:And it's just another thing that shows that we've let corporations hijack our children's futures, because the government didn't make those smartphones and tablets, and five million games and shows to consume on them.

We apparently, as a society, have no problem with people hurting our children as long as people are making money from it. It's disgusting.

These people distract our kids from some of the most important things in life and divert it to the most trivial things in life. And we let them.

This is the real issue, even the OP say recreational screen time.

the problem particularly with 'free' smart phone games is many of the 'kid friendly' games that parents let their kids play are purposely designed to be unhealthily addictive. Parents would be better off paying for full games and avoiding anything with micro-transactions.

Interesting that there isn't more of a demand for educational games on smartphones/tablets

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

Yep,  these studies are simply confirming what many have been suggesting over the past decade...

Even before computers, tablets and smartphones became so easily affordable and common, there were plenty of lazy parents who would rely on televisions as mindless "babysitters" as they went on with other tasks around the home..  Made even worse by so many parents today living in around crowded cities, and/ or too scared of the modern world to allow older children to even venture outside.

And, as well as "reductions in cognitive skills..",  over the past couple of decades there has also been noticeable declines in many school leavers knowing such relatively simple "skills" as reading analogue clocks, doing mental arithmetic, using printed street guides and telephone books, using a map and compass, composing hand-written essays and reports, let alone applying "critical analysis" in simple problem solving --  basically because young students are being introduced to computers and digital devices too early in the piece, and then are all-too-often allowed to progress along without first "mastering the basics".

While agree with the first bit i disagree with the last paragraph
most of those things are not important and/or a product of that thing going obsolete

doing basic mental arithmetic is still useful but the rest is unnecessary
You're not going to carry printed street guides, telephone books, a map and compass in case your phone battery dies be easier to carry a portable charger or backup battery
the problem is they a given them as 'magic' rather than taught how they actually work 
we need to treat smartphones as a tool, and like other tools a key step in learning the tool is learning how it actually works, not just how to consume the end product 

By the way If you set the clock on the phone to analog then they would learn to read analog... 

And even 18 years ago when i was in uni hand written was not acceptable for academic submissions.... literally ADULTS today where born after hand written was unacceptable for an academic or professional level document