What is the time of the screen?

Between e-mail, quick sending of messages, video games and television, electronic media infiltrated almost every aspect of our daily life. However, the impact of this time in front of the screen is not quite positive. While some media exposure can be useful and instructive, too much time on the screen breaks away other activities. It should not be any surprise that fun, such as reading for pleasure, playing board games and volunteering in the community, has been a constant decline in recent years. In addition, many experts believe that the amount of time on a computer that a person spends on a typical day is an important risk factor for health problems related to obesity. Pediatricians and experts in the development of children now recommend that time on children's screen be limited to no more than two hours a day. This includes TV and video games and the use of a computer with a school. Parents of children under the age of two are generally recommended not to provide time on the screen at all.

Unfortunately, this recommendation does not seem to be followed in most families. One recent study has found that children aged eight and 18 are spending almost 45 hours a week watching TV, playing video games and surfing on the web. It's more time than spending homework, talking to their parents, exercise or reading for pleasure. In order to further combine this problem, a large part of electronic media, which is time on the children's screen, is filled with violent and/or sexually inappropriate content. Even children are not immune to the effects of media exposure; The Kaiser Foundation found that 61% of children aged for one year or younger watchmaking media on a typical day.

What can the busy parents do to solve the problem of too much time for children? The most common are not to allow TVs and computers in your child's bedroom. Maintaining electronic media in the central areas of the house makes it easier to determine the limits on appropriate use. Avoid pEasuring television, video games and computer time as rewards for good behavior. Provide a lot of other recreational activities for your child you can enjoy and strive to create your children a good example with your own media use.

Thanks to media consumption, family activity is another way to shorten the potentially harmful effects of time on the screen. This is particularly important for teenagers because you want to take advantage of any opportunity to discuss your family's expectations concerning drugs, alcohol and sexual relations.