Children’s screen time doubled since 2017

The amount of time children spend a day looking at screens has doubled in two years according to recent research.

Optical Express’ annual survey revealed that children aged 3-16 spend four hours a day looking at screens, which is twice as much as two years ago.

A third of the 2,000 parents who took part in the survey admitted that their child regularly complains of headaches but were unaware that this is a symptom of too much screen time.

Optical Express’ clinical services director Stephen Hannan said: ‘We can’t avoid screens in today’s world, more lessons are being taught at school using screens of different types and so we need to try and limit our children’s screen time at home as much as possible. Their vision can be reduced by up to half while closely focussing on a screen and it could also lead to dry spots and blurred vision.’