MEDIA EXPOSURE AND CHILDREN,D K JHA,MD
Wednesday, July 1st, 2015On the day of Doctors Day today, when we are celebrating the day in the memory of DR B.C.ROY,who was born and died on 1st July,I would like to highlight the issue of how useful and harmful is to expose our children to media.
By using the word media,I mean to say television news and different programmes on television which attract children,social media including Facebook,Whatsapp ,videogames of different types and access to internet.
Everything and anything may be useful and harmful depending on how we interpret and use it.Children specially less than 8 years old are usually not able to discriminate between what he or she watch and what should not be watched.Moreover,the can not interpret the contents in its perspective correctly.Any information bad or good impacts a lot on the growing brain.Sometimes, children imitate to do what they watch, being unaware of what is its consequence.There are so many mental problems occurring in children which may be and have been linked to media exposure by research study.The most important which is affecting our societies worldwide is violence .Children are becoming less tolerant and more demanding due the impact of media.
On the other hand, children have developed sedentary habits by giving much time to media They are sitting for a long time in different desirable and undesirable postures ,avoiding outdoor activities and games.These habits are giving room to develop different physical diseases including Obesity,Diabetes mallitus,Hypertension and different cardiovascular diseases .It affects eye vision and the radiation coming from these electronic devices, lowers the level of Melatonin which is an antioxidant, naturally occurring in our body.This in turn make them susceptible to cancer.
So ,media exposure should be limited to one hour in a day and restricted to quality content which gives positive impact on the growing brain.On the other hand,if possible, parents should be available at that time to explain the contents by correctly interpreting it, in its perspective.
REFERENCES:
.American Academy of Pediatrics, committee on communications. Children, Adolescents, and Television (RE0043).Pediatrics. 2001; 107:423-6
.Williams CL, Heyman LL, Daniels SR, Robinson TN,Steinberger J,Paridon S et al.Cardiovascular health in childhood.J circulation. 2002; 106:143-60
.Drzal GJ, Snela S,Rykala J , Podgorska J, Rachwal M.Effects of the body position on sitting posture of children aged 11-13 years.Work.2014; 6:1-8
.Wood B, Rea SM, Plitnick B, Figueiro GM.Light level and duration of exposure determine the impact of self luminous tablets on Melatonin suppression. Applied Ergonomics J.2013; 44:237-40.