Watching TV Too Often Turns Out Not Damaging Your Child's Eyes

Medical Video: Does Staring At Screens Ruin Your Eyes?

When you are a child, your parents may be busy advising you - or bullying, if you are still stubborn - not to watch TV too closely, because otherwise your eyes will be damaged. This advice sticks tightly in your mind to adulthood and now, as a parent, it is you who are on duty to warn your children not to sit too close to the television screen.

Have you ever wondered, where did the origin of this advice come from and did this ancestral advice contain just a little truth?

Starting from convex TV in the past

Before the 1950s, many convex screen televisions were known to emit high levels of radiation from cathode ray tubes in them, up to 10,000 times higher than the safe limit. As a result, after continuous and repeated exposure, this radiation can increase the risk of vision problems in most people. The advice from the authorities to overcome this panic is to keep a distance from the TV screen. As long as you sit a little away and don't watch TV for more than an hour or too close, you will be safe. A number of television factories are quickly pulling their 'defective' products and fixing them, but the stigma of "watching TV too close will damage the eyes" is still alive today

Modern scientists can ensure that this ancient warning is truly outdated. There is no scientific evidence that watching TV too close will hurt the eyes - both in children and adults. In addition, modern television devices are now designed with strong leaded glass shields, so that beam radiation is no longer a problem.

Children watch TV too close, maybe because he is already farsighted

Children generally have the habit of reading books or sitting right in front of the TV screen, because of the desire to fulfill their peripheral vision with images on the TV screen. This does not require special concern. Children's eyes are designed in such a way as to be able to focus in short distances faster and better than the eyes of adults. This habit will usually decrease as they grow older.

Watching TV too close will not make a child become nearsighted, but maybe your child is sitting too close to the TV screen because he has nearsightedness and has never been diagnosed before - not due to television radiation. If your child is used to sitting too close to the TV to worry about you, especially those who sit very close and / or watching from a strange angle, have their eyes checked by an ophthalmologist to get a correct diagnosis.

The worst case scenario, sitting too close to a TV screen in modern times will only give you headaches and the possibility of tired eye syndrome. Both of these can be a problem for children, who often watch TV while lying on the floor. Watching TV while looking up will cause the eye muscles to become more stretchy and exhausted than watching the TV in a screen position parallel to the eye or looking down (the same thing applies to computer monitors or other electronic gadgets).

Tired eye syndrome can also occur when watching TV or looking at a computer screen in a dimmer screen light than room lighting. Fortunately, eye fatigue is not a permanent condition and does not threaten child safety. Tired eyes can be easily overcome: turn off the TV.

It's best to immediately invite your child to move from his seat in front of the TV now and do other productive activities, because it seems the worst effect of watching TV does not lie in eye health, and may come from watching television too often and not long screen distance.

However, watching TV too long is still not good for eye health

Children who spend too long in front of the screen and are not physically active have narrowed arteries in the eye, according to an Australian study finding reported by NY Times.

The researchers gathered nearly 1,500 6 year olds from all over Sydney. Researchers examined participants' eyes after examining the time spent on productive physical activity and wasted time just watching TV / computer. As a result, they showed that in children who most often and longest watched TV there was a narrowing of the arteries in their eyes, compared to groups of children who watched TV less frequently.

The results for physical activity are not much different: The eyes of children who rarely exercise together show a narrowing of blood vessels. However, the reason is unclear.

Until now researchers have not been able to ascertain what the impact of narrowing of blood vessels in the eyes of children, but in adults, narrowing of the arteries of the eye has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

In addition, reported from Scientific Americanchildren who consistently watch more than four hours of TV a day are more likely to have excess weight - which can bring a number of health problems later on.

So how are the rules for watching TV safe?

Even though watching TV might be an inevitable activity for your little one, the key is to use it wisely. Watching TV too close will not make children lose their overall vision, but still limit the amount and time of exposure to any screen (TV, cellphone, computer), and monitor what they can watch. Parents must teach their children that TV is occasional entertainment, not for continuous escape.

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