BBC – Mark Ward
“My boys spend a lot of time on their tablets and our home computers. I realised it had become a problem when I saw them watching YouTube via a tablet as they tied their shoelaces before leaving for school. My worries about what effect this might have on them are founded on several studies. “Every hour of screen time has an impact,” said Dr Kirsten Corder, a senior investigative scientist at the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (Cedar) at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Public Health. In a study, Dr Corder and colleagues looked at the leisure habits of 845 children aged, on average, 14.5 and found that an extra hour per day spent watching TV, playing games and browsing online is “associated” with poorer GCSE grades at age 16. “The difference can be eight or nine GCSE points,” said Dr Corder. This translates into dropping two grades in one subject or one across two subjects. Like all parents, I want my kids to do the best they can and removing one drain on their attention seems sensible.”(more)