Make parents ration their children's TV time, says expert

Dr Aric Sigman said the Government must take action to cut TV-watching among children as too much increases the risk of health and learning problems.

He wants to see parents given recommended daily amount guidelines, much as they are for salt, and said "screen media" was a major issue for public health.

Studies have shown excessive TV watching is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioural problems and increased obesity in children.

One long-term study, published in The Lancet medical journal in 2004, found children who watched more than two hours of television a day between the ages of five and 15 saw their health suffer years later.

Experts made the link between childhood viewing and raised cholesterol levels, obesity and smoking in adulthood.

Today, Dr Sigman will urge the Government to advise parents on the issue and suggests children under three should watch no TV at all. He also believes there should be no TV sets in children's bedrooms and new mothers should be warned of the possible effects.

Dr Sigman said: "Screen media must now be considered a major public health issue and reducing television viewing must become the new priority for child health."

He rejected claims that setting down guidelines constitutes a "nanny state", saying: "Successive governments are quite willing to advise us on personal matters ranging from how many apples and oranges we should eat per day, grams of daily salt intake, units of alcohol, sun SPF factors and passive smoking, to our sexual habits and how and when we should smack our children.

"Providing general guidance on whether infants should be watching television and how much time children should spend in front of the screen is hardly radical.

"While popular phrases such as 'striking a balance' or 'everything in moderation' may sound reassuringly sensible, one of the main obstacles in encouraging people to reduce their children's screen time is the vagueness of the terms 'moderation' and 'excessive'.

"We haven't been told what excessive actually means. Most of the damage linked to television screen viewing seems to occur beyond watching one to one-and-a-half hours per day, irrespective of the quality of the programme.

"Yet the average child watches three to five times this amount.

"Parents need an ideal reference point, even if they choose to ignore it or cannot adhere to it." Dr Sigman, who is an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Institute of Biology, will voice his concerns at a Children and the Media conference at the House of Commons this morning.

The conference has been organised by Mediawatch-UK and will be attended by health representatives and MPs.

Dr Sigman said: "Many believe that we shouldn't make parents feel guilty about the amount of time children spend in front of a screen and the early age at which they start.

"But we must now make a clear judgment that child health is more important than parental guilt.

"At the moment, the British population watches television for more hours per day and reads less than any other nation in Europe.

"Our children are Europe's most obese. An increasing number of infants have TV screens in their bedrooms and by the time children reach adolescence they spend an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of a TV screen."

Dr Sigman's recommended daily allowance is:

• Children under three: No screen exposure

• Children aged three to seven: 30 minutes to one hour per day

• Children aged seven to 12: One hour per day

• Children aged 12 to 15: One and-a-half hours a day

• Children aged 16 and over: Two hours