Warning: Spare the screens & save the child

Little boy staring at a television screen. Picture: Supplied

Little boy staring at a television screen. Picture: Supplied

Published Nov 22, 2016

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Children under the age of 5 on average are glued to screens for more than four hours each day.

For 251 minutes of the day they are watching TV, playing on games consoles or clutching tablets and phones.

It just beggars belief. And for children aged five to 15, screen time is an even bigger chunk of their day.

At such a formative age, it must be damaging to be detached from the real world and spending so long immersed in a two-dimensional electronic one.

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What's more, by constantly staring at screens, they will miss out on vital social contact.

This will impact their ability to interact with fellow humans.

They never actually experience any genuine down-time when they are unable to fully to switch off.

Picture: Supplied

Tragically, too many children are unable to tolerate boredom. Everything has to be fast-paced and frenetic; they can only cope with bite-sized portions that require little mental focus because they are always moving on to the next thing.

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Learning to relax, to slow down and contemplate are vital life skills - yet by permitting children to be glued to their screens, we are raising a generation who could end up incapable of mastering such abilities.

It's no exaggeration to say we are condemning these children to a miserable future.

Daily Mail

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