Children spend up to seven hours each day in front of a television, computer, tablet or cellphone screen. This can cause attention problems, eating and sleeping disorders, and obesity, experts say. It may also expose young children to inappropriate content. Because of this, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends parental controls on electronics that children access. These can be used to set usage time limits, or to restrict content based on rating or channel.
AAP also suggests setting up “screen-free” zones in the home, ensuring that some rooms have no televisions, computers or video games. This encourages children to find other, healthier activities to participate in, AAP says. And overall, media engagement should be limited to two hours per day for children and teenagers.
Source: American Academy of Pediatrics