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Children and TV: Limiting your child's screen time
Children and TV often go hand in hand. Understand the effects of too much screen time — and how to enforce reasonable limits.
By Mayo Clinic staffAre you concerned about how much time your child spends watching TV or playing video games? Although some screen time can be educational, it's easy to go overboard. Consider this guide to children and TV, including how to limit your child's screen time.
Children and TV — the effects
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting a child's use of TV, movies, video and computer games to no more than one or two hours a day. Too much screen time has been linked to:
- Obesity. Children who watch more than two hours of TV a day are more likely to be overweight.
- Irregular sleep. The more TV children watch, the more likely they are to resist going to bed and to have trouble falling asleep.
- Behavioral problems. Children who watch excessive amounts of TV are more likely to bully, have attention problems, and show signs of depression or anxiety than children who don't.
- Impaired academic performance. Elementary students who have TVs in their bedrooms tend to perform worse on tests than those who don't.
- Less time for play. Excessive screen time leaves less time for active, creative play.
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- Parenting corner q&a: TV and your family. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_TV.htm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Mistry KB, et al. Children's television exposure and behavioral and social outcomes at 5.5 years: Does timing of exposure matter? Pediatrics. 2007;120:762.
- Jordan AB, et al. Reducing children's television-viewing time: A qualitative study of parents and their children. Pediatrics. 2006;118:e1303.
- Ginsburg KR, et al. The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics. 2007;119:182.
- Thompson DA, et al. The association between television viewing and irregular sleep schedules among children less than 3 years of age. 2005;116:851.
- Borzekowski DLG, et al. The remote, the mouse and the no. 2 pencil: The household media environment and academic achievement among third grade students. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2005;159:607.
- Zimmerman FJ, et al. Early cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and television watching as predictors of subsequent bullying among grade-school children. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2005;159:384.
- Owens J, et al. Television-viewing habits and sleep disturbance in school children. Pediatrics. 1999;104:e27.
- Laurson KR, et al. Combined influence of physical activity and screen time on recommendations on childhood overweight. 2008;153:209.
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