Tv and Internet

315 Words2 Pages
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
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