Just two hours of television can make young children behave more badly, according to a study conducted by Cynthia Minkovitz, associate professor of family health at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and other researchers.
Children age 2 to 6 who watch two hours or more of TV a day “show clear signs of bad behaviour [sic], lower social skills and disrupted sleep patterns.”
“It is vital for clinicians to emphasize the importance of reducing television viewing in early childhood,” Minkovitz says.
“It is the greatest unacknowledged health threat of our time,” adds Dr. Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and author of a book on children and television. “Children are watching television at a critical stage in the development of the brain. They are being physically shaped, like a piece of clay, in response to what they are exposed to. Television is isolating. The key stages of development are language acquisition and social skills and, if they’re displaced at this time, they may be irreplaceable. At the same time, faster editing with colours [sic], zooms and a constant stream of images has been linked to a lower attention span.”
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