By: Ethan Pi
The World Health Organization (WHO) Foundation recently came out with guidance saying that children under the age of five should receive no more than half an hour of daily screentime, along with almost zero screentime if possible for babies.
Health experts have simply told us less is better and more screentime poses a threat for not only our eyes but also our body as well. Although WHO took this into account, many agencies say that WHO’s screen time guidelines failed to consider the potential benefits of media platforms. In fact, some parents even say that channels like Coco Melon or PJ Mask can help youngsters understand the world around them better with insight.
Director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, Andrew Przybylski, writes, “WHO’s screen time advice overly focuses on the quantity of screen time and fails to consider the content and context of use. Not all screen time is created equal.”
On the flip side, Britain’s Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, instead of saying that WHO’s plan was too strong, said that the data available made by the WHO Foundation were too weak to allow its experts to set any thresholds for the appropriate level of screen time.
“Our research has shown that currently there isn’t strong enough evidence to support the setting of screen time limits,” Dr. Max Davie, the college’s officer for health improvement, says. “The restricted screen time limits suggested by WHO don’t seem proportionate to the potential harm,” he adds.
While WHO didn’t mention the potential harm caused by screen time, it noted that physical inactivity was a leading risk factor for death and a contributor to the rise in obesity. Besides, eyesight just starts to grow at an infant age, so it’s best not to ruin the process. WHO went on to say that infants under the age of one should spend at least half an hour daily on their stomachs and that older kids should get at least three hours of physical activity, whether that is taking a breather outside or getting up out of their chairs, every single day.
WHO says in an article titled “To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more,” that spending less time on tablets, cell phones, or other tap-screen devices partly save the 5 million deaths created by under exercise globally in all age groups. They recorded the sleep time made by individuals watching TV or glued to a computer screen and reviewed evidence around the benefits of increased outdoor activity from sleep.
“Improving physical activity, reducing sedentary time in front of a laptop and ensuring quality sleep in young children will improve their physical, mental health and wellbeing, and help prevent childhood obesity and associated diseases later in life,” says Dr. Fiona Bull, program director and manager for surveillance of diseases at WHO. She advocates for the 80% adolescents who are not sufficiently active, 87% of that number being teens who are glued to a computer screen. Not only that, 23% of adults remain inactive since adolescence.
Even after the WHO Foundation has issued a policy that infants are to receive zero to no more than thirty minutes worth of screentime, dejected frowns form on the face of parents across the nation, who advocate their children by saying screentime can be necessary for child development. Nevertheless, WHO insists that their issued policy will be successful in helping children in cognitive development and will endure through life with pursued health.