BEIJING: A recent study found that kindergarten children who are exposed to electronic screens for more than an hour a day have a significant increase in mental health risk regardless of the content viewed, and the risk escalates as the duration of screen exposure increases.
According to the study conducted by experts from the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, children watching entertainment and non-child-directed programs have greater mental health risks than those who watch educational programs. A paper about the research, which involved nearly 16,000 kindergarten children from Shanghai for three consecutive years, was published on the website of the journal JAMA Pediatrics earlier this month.
Children’s exposure to TV and other electronic products has become a norm, and it is starting earlier. World Health Organization guidelines recommend that children under 2 years avoid screen exposure, and that children aged between 2 and 5 should spend no more than an hour a day on average in front of screens.
However, previous studies by the research group found that 24 percent of children had screen exposure before reaching 1 year old, and 76 percent of children began regular screen exposure before 2. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
