Children spend more time in front of a computer or television every day than they spend exercising every week
By Liz Thomas
Children in Britain sit in front of a TV or computer
screen for four-and-a-half hours a day, alarming research reveals.
Youngsters now spend an average of one hour and 50
minutes online and two hours 40 minutes in front of the television every day.
A report released by research firm ChildWise suggests
that screens are increasingly turning into electronic babysitters and young
people in the UK are spending more time plugged in than ever.
It found that children spend more time in front of a
screen in one day than they spend exercising in the entire week.
The worrying research found that 97 per cent of 11 to
16-year-olds own a mobile phone – eight per cent more than the percentage of
adults who own one.
And it showed that young girls have a voracious
appetite for celebrity magazines such as OK! and Heat rather than more
traditional teenage fare such as Jackie.
The study came as an academic warned that youngsters
are using mobile phones to learn about each others’ bodies and access X-rated
porn rather than learning about such matters ‘behind the bike sheds’.
Dr Emma Bond, an expert in childhood and youth
studies, said adults ‘need to take our heads out of the sand’ about what is
happening to young, impressionable children.
‘The research shows how children are using mobile
phones in obtaining sexual material, developing their sexual identities and in
their intimate relationships with each other,’ she added.
The Monitor Report 2010-11 found that children spent
only two hours a week exercising in school, and taking part in physical
activity out of school.
Two in three children aged between five and 16, and 77
per cent of children aged 11 to 16, have their own television or personal
computer and, despite fears about online safety, almost half have internet
access in their own room.
2m under 13s now use Facebook, while the average child
spends 1hr 48minutes online daily
The study questioned almost 2,500 five to 16-year-olds
about their computer, TV and reading habits. The findings show most go online
daily and spend much of their time on social networks and video sharing sites
such as YouTube.
But despite the popularity of the internet, the next
generation is still likely to be one of telly addicts.
Around 63 per cent of children have a television set
in their room but as the popularity of laptops increases and programmes are
increasingly available online this is likely to drop.
A spokesman for ChildWise said: ‘The number of
children with a laptop or PC now matches those with a television but TV
continues to play an important role. The way they are watching is continually
changing. Children are seeking out programming that they want, when they want
it.
‘Children’s online activity is moving towards personal
access for all, so that, in the not too distant future the disadvantaged child
will be the one without a laptop of their own.’
Despite Facebook supposedly being restricted to
over-13s, more than two million children under that age now have a profile on
the social networking site. It is named as their favourite website.
The research found a third of all seven to
ten-year-olds visited Facebook in the last week, along with 71 per cent of 11
and 12-year-olds and 85 per cent of 13-16-year-olds.
Even with the wide choice from digital and satellite
channels and dedicated youth stations such as ITV2 and E4, BBC1 remains the
most popular TV channel.
EastEnders and The Simpsons are among their favourite
programmes, along with the crude Channel 4 comedy about school life The
Inbetweeners.
Margaret Morrissey of lobby group Parents Outloud,
said children could not be blamed for spending time on the computer or in front
of the TV.
On many housing estates gardens had been reduced to
the size of a pocket handkerchief, she said. ‘We cannot complain as the
generation in charge when they (children) use the things we have provided and
don’t have space to do recreational things outdoors,’ she said.
From dailymail.co.uk
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