Swiss paediatricians are warning against the excessive television and computer use that some children indulge in.
In the new version of the health record given to parents, they set the limit at 7-10 hours a week.
“When some little ones tell me about the film they have just watched, in the morning before coming to school, I am amazed,” says this nursery school teacher in Zurich. For her, there is no doubt: the number of children watching a lot of television – and often alone – keeps increasing.
The Swiss Society of Paediatrics (SSP) is also sounding the alarm, with a warning now included in the Health Record that accompanies children from birth to their fourteenth birthday. The warning is not meant to be preachy, as the record is above all intended to raise awareness: “Did you know that too much television and computer use (more than 7 to 10 hours a week) has an unfavourable effect on the physical and psychological development of children and adolescents?”, the paediatricians ask in the chapter “Growing and developing”.
“Television does not meet the developmental needs – cognitive, emotional, psychomotor… – of young children,” explains Dr Nicole Pellaud, a member of the SSP working group responsible for the new edition of the record”
This probably reminds you of the current campaigns against the dangers of screens.
And yet, this text is … ten years old! It was published on 31 January 2007 on Swiss Info.ch
https://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/exc%C3%A8s-de-tv–les-p%C3%A9diatres-lancent-un-cri-d-alarme/5666208
It seems to have been of no use, if I am to believe the same paediatricians who are telling me about it today… In other words, children aged two to five are spending more and more time in front of screens. But before worrying too much about what they will become, it might be useful to find out what became of those we were so worried about ten years ago. On this subject, we can read (page 116) in the brochure that UNICEF devoted to “Connected adolescents” (https://www.unicef.org/french/publications/files/SOWC_2017_FR.pdf)
” Despite concerns, notably among parents and educators, about the effects of prolonged exposure to screens, a recent large-scale cross-sectional study of more than 120,000 15-year-olds in the United Kingdom found that the time children spent using digital technologies had only limited effects. This study, which controlled for factors related to sex, ethnic group and economic situation, covered television and film, video games, computers and smartphones. The impact of each activity is somewhat different, but the authors concluded that none of them was generally associated with lower mental well-being, while moderate use (between two and five hours a day or so, depending on the activity) seemed to have a slight positive influence on mental well-being1.
The “Goldilocks effect”, neither too much nor too little, but just the right amount, seemed to suit children.”
S.T.
Goldilocks hypothesis), pp. 209–210.
Serge Tisseron is a psychiatrist, doctor of psychology qualified to supervise research, member of the Academy of Technologies, and associate researcher at Paris VII Denis Diderot University (CRPMS).
