TV and computers: Are students spending too much screen time?
- July 13, 2010 3:18 PM |
- By POV
Ontario students were surveyed about their use of various electronic screens for the first time in an ongoing study. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
By CBC News
Nearly 10 per cent of Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 average seven hours a day or more watching TV or using a computer, a new survey suggests.
The report was the first time that "screen time" or sedentary behaviour -- the amount of time students spend watching television or using a computer -- was measured in the ongoing Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey Mental Health and Well-Being Report.
Just under 10 per cent of the respondents, a rate that would translate to 93,000 students provincewide, reported seven hours of more of sedentary behaviour, according to Tuesday's online report from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
The study does not make any cause-and-effect link between screen time and health issues.
Do students spend too much time online or watching TV? How much screen time is healthy? If you have younger children, do you limit their computer and TV activity? Let us know below.
(This is not a scientific poll. It is based on readers' responses.)
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