“It becomes an addiction when whatever you’re doing becomes a controlling factor for you, rather than you of it.”
– Dr. Marsha Sauls, psychologist
We know that hours spent in front of television and computer screens are hours not spent in physical activity. A new study published in Pediatrics magazine reports that being in front of a computer screen or TV for more than two hours a day is related to psychological difficulties in kids – even if they are physically active.
When it comes to playing video games and games on the computer, thirteen-year-old Patrick knows what it’s like to be out of control. “I used to do nothing but the computer,” he says.
Kim, Patrick’s mother, agrees. “I can leave him all day on a Saturday and he would just sit there the whole day,” she says.
Patrick’s younger sister Caitlin says that if it isn’t one game, it’s another. “He plays Nintendo whenever he has a new game, but if he doesn’t have a new game he’s on the computer.”
Patrick says he’s not addicted to computer games, but he knows kids who are. “I have this one friend, he’s on the computer twenty-four seven, Every time I come over he says ‘help me beat the game.'”
A study of 1,000 10- and 11-year-olds finds that kids in front of a computer or TV screen for more than two hours a day are more likely to have trouble relating to friends and report feelings of unhappiness – even if they’re physically active at other times during the day.
Dr. Sauls says, “Then they move further and further away from real friends, because they are spending more and more time with virtual friends. As a result, they have less and less time to develop social skills.”
When that happens, experts say parents need to step in and find something else for kids to do.
“Create opportunities for that adolescent to be involved in something that is larger than themselves,” says Dr. Sauls.
For Patrick, running on the cross-country team seems to be the answer. It helps him strike a balance between the virtual world, and the world that is real.
What We Need To Know
A study reported in Pediatrics magazine says that children whose parents set consistent rules about television use were less likely to exceed the recommended screen time limits – no more than two hours a day.
Chances are, if your children are like most, they spend too much time glued to the screen watching television, surfing the Internet and playing video games. So, how can you break this habit without wrecking havoc in the home? The answer, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, is to find fun, positive activities that children enjoy and to smartly manage their screen time.
Following are 11 tips for parents to help their children make a painless transition from couch potato to a physically and pro-socially active child:
- Remove television sets from children’s bedrooms.
- View television programs with children and discuss the content.
- Record high-quality, educational programming for children.
- Suggest several options for positive physical and pro-social activities that are available through local park districts, schools, and community programs.
- Recommend pro-social activities, such as volunteering at Humane Society of the United States (visit www.hsus.org).
- Encourage alternative activities for children, including hobbies, athletics, and
- creative play.
- Support efforts to establish comprehensive programs in schools that include quality, daily physical education; classroom education; daily recess periods; and extracurricular physical activity programs.
- Form coalitions including libraries, faith-based organizations, and neighborhood groups to help provide physical and social environments that encourage and enable safe and enjoyable physical activity, including new sidewalks, safe parks and keeping close-to-home physical activity facilities open at night.
- Ensure that appropriate activity options are available for disabled children.
- Serve as a good role model; watch the time spent viewing television and surfing the Internet in the home.
Resources
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Screen Time Linked to Psychological Problems
- American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Children.org
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