How long should a child be allowed to watch screens?

How long should a child be allowed to watch screens?

This depends from parent to parent, but there also might be some differences according to your country?

Post your opinion and your country of origin please!

I come from Belgium and I think 1.5 hours a day should be enough, untill he's 18. From then on, it's his/her responsibility.

 

Do you have something against screens? Is there any reason that before 18, only 1.5 hours of screen viewing is allowable, but on day 6575 you can look at a screen as much as you want?

 

Providing that the child is fulfilling their obligations i don't think there is an issue. Although i suppose it also depends on the age of the child, for example i personally think limiting a 16 year old to 1.5 hours of screen viewing is absurd.

Overall i don't think imposing an allotted time to look at screens is reasonable, i believe that within reason they should be entitled to their freedom and should be allowed to choose what to do within their free time.

 

I'd say if it's a child you should monitor how much time they spend infront of a screen. Make sure that they're playing outside and enjoying childhood, and also that they're keeping up in terms of learning.

When they get older though, say 10 years old+ I'd say you should just let them play for as long as they wish. As long as they're maintaining their grades and are involved in a sports team or any other extra curricular activities that gets them out and socializing.

 

Surgeons who spend their free time playing video games show significant increase in dexterity and endurance, and a decrease in mistakes during surgeries than those who don't. Surgeons who don't regularly play have been put in front of video games for several hours before starting surgery, and also showed significant increase in these skills as well, even from limited exposure.

There are many studies such as this that have shown video games have numerous benefits to cognitive and fine motor skills. With this in mind, I believe there's an equal amount of benefit as detriment to being sat in front of a computer monitor for more than an hour and a half a day, and therefore I think it's OK for parents to let their kids play for longer than you suggested in your OP. As with everything though, moderation is necessary, and so if I were to give it a number (even though I believe it varies GREATLY depending upon the child and the environment the child is subject to), 3-4 hours a day on average for a child/teen is an acceptable amount time to spend online. For a balanced childhood, and in line with contemporary childhood developmental theories and models, physical socialization should still be encouraged, as well as outdoor play. But like I said, you learn a fair number of skills from the computer as well as playing outside, so game-play shouldn't be discouraged.

 

the problem is not with the screen but with too uch time inside you need to be outside to meet other people in every day life so if you are on computer you will only be with your self and this is bad for social behaviour

 

Are you talking to yourself right now?

 

What you're stating theoretically makes sense however personally I couldn't image a surgeon (older ones) who play video games.

 

I think you'd be surprised. Because surgeons need to have steady hands and quick reflexes, most of them are fairly young, and I know a lot of 30+ year olds who play video games. For all its satire and comedy, Scrubs is a fairly accurate show, if you've seen it, that's what the average hospital staff look like.

 

Surgeons are now being advised by their boards to play 30 minutes of video games a day. As stated before it has incredible cognitive benefits and is the perfect mechanism to warm them up and ensure that they're ready to proceed on with the operation at hand.

It'll be even more prevelent with this generation of surgeons coming up, I'd expect a fair amount of them genuinely enjoy video games.

 

The argument that spending too much time alone, etc. Playing video games 12 hours a day, Is bullshit. Nobody plays video games all day and doesn't talk to anyone, your communication skills don't get worse, I spent, and sometimes still spend 6+ hours at a computer screen by myself. I'm not socially awkward, or any shit like that, not a virgin, don't have a hard time speaking. That's not even an argument lol. Let the kid do whatever he pleases, it isn't you job to control the kids life, it's your job to guide him/her. I agree if it starts to plummet the important things in life, grades, jobs, etc. You need to step in as a parent, but otherwise. Yolo.

 

Depends on the content displayed by the screens. Children exposed to violent media have been found to express greater amounts of physical aggression as well as neurodevelopment disorders. That being said, the right content can be very beneficial to a child's learning and behaviours.

 

Isnt really an issue so long as they are a suitable distance from the screen and take regular breaks, dont want them having sight issues - Short sighted being the most common

 

1-2 hours a day should be more than enough

 

Source?

 

Really Swell also mentioned in his post it really depends on the content. I can remember that when I was a kid I loved (still do) to watch programs about nature, documentaries about species, the oceans, the earth itself, space etc etc.

If your kid camps Runescape 12 hours a day ofcourse that's not very good. It's really hard to set a line though for children, because I remember my friends who were allowed 1 hour of computer time per day would just hop to my house and play on the computer with me. My parents never gave me a specific timer when to get off and I didn't abuse it because I had the freedom. If it would have ever gotten out of hand I am sure they would talk to me about it.

Don't say: 'You kids should play outside'. I still played outside a lot when I was a kid but I also liked playing games. Times are changing and the only thing you should do is avoid addiction to tv/pc etc. With Smarphones, iPads, Desktops, Notebooks, Smartwatches etc it's almost impossible to set a limit for your child.

One thing I do know is limiting a kid or saying they can't or can do certain things is something that in most cases won't work.

 

Totally agree with that last statement, it only causes retaliation if you say to a child "you can't" or "you won't" I think only limit it if it starts to get out of hand. But even then in a more controlled manner, encourage them to go outside, by actually going outside yourself lol.

 

3 hours a day if under 13.

 

do not restrict the screen time but encourage productive content and promote going outside as well, restrictions like you meantion will cause your kid to think you are a nazi and a hypocrit especially when they go outside and talk to friends whos parents dont restrict them, youre basically going to be encouraging defiant behavior with such limitations as well as stripping imagination cause some cartoons and things on tv do inspire people as well as things on the net

 

I reckon children should be allowed to go on as much as they like untill it starts affecting their social/academic life. From then its the parents duty to restrict their child