Boarding Schools for Girls

Spending too much time watching television, surfing the Internet, playing computer games, texting on cell phones, watching movies, and reading magazines is taking a toll on the health of American children and teenagers, according to a new study from the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Victor Strasburger and his colleagues went through studies on the effects of media consumption and found that too much exposure to media makes children more violent, more likely to engage in early sex, more likely to consume tobacco and alcohol, more likely to be obese, and more likely to have attention deficit disorder.

For example, the impact of media violence on real-life aggression is 0.31 times higher, a statistic compared to the impact of smoking and lung cancer, which is 0.39 higher.

Dr. Strasburger had three guidelines for parents:

• Limit media to less than one or two hours a day;
• Keep media devices out of young people's bedrooms;
• Watch media with your child and discuss the contents.

In the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Strasburger noted in his reported that today's children spend as much time with media as they do sleeping.

"Too little has been done by parents, health care practitioners, schools, the entertainment industry, or the government to protect children and adolescents from harmful media effects, and to maximize the powerfully prosocial aspects of modern media," according to the report. "More research is needed, but sufficient data exist to warrant both concerned and increased action."

Labels: media_influences, health

Posted By: Aspen/CRC