Earlier this month, the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, warned parents that children are overusing social media and consuming time online ‘like junk food’.
Ms Longfield recommended that parents intervene to prevent their children ‘binging’ on screen use, and criticised the tactics employed by social media giants to draw children into spending more time on their platforms.
Announcing a ‘digital five-a-day’ campaign, the Children’s Commissioner encouraged a healthy online diet. It advises parents to help children use their internet time productively – to learn new skills, interact with friends and be creative instead of switching off Wi-Fi entirely.
The campaign follows recent findings, from Ofcom, which confirms children are spending increasingly longer periods online. In 2016, internet use overtook television as the top media pastime for children.
Children aged five to 15 on average now spend 15 hours a week online and in the last year, the time spent online by three and four-year-olds has risen from six hours to eight hours a week.
The AOP’s own research shows this degree of use is causing concern among parents. More than 80% of the optometrists surveyed reported that they had seen parents, in a single month, who worried about screen use damaging their child’s eyes.
So, the AOP launched a campaign on screen time for children to provide simple, informative guidance for parents, designed to coincide with school summer holidays, when there is more opportunity for ‘binging’ on phones and tablets.
We advocate regular screen breaks, more time outside and a balanced approach to protect eye health.
For more information visit www.aop.org.uk.