Children ages three and under should not be allowed near touch screen devices such as tablet computers and smartphones, say Chinese doctors in Guangzhou. According a recent study done in Guangzhou, the doctors found that children are adversely affected by touch screen devices.
The study states that the children can develop "severe" eye problems ranging from astigmatism, amblyopia (lazy eye), myopia among others.
Citing the common practice nowadays that Chinese parents often resort to giving their children mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones to keep them quiet, the doctors in Guangzhou recommend keeping young children away from said devices.
However parents reading Kotaku, please take this with a grain of salt. The study held in Guangzhou was done with only forty children. Additionally, only 30 percent of the forty (that's 12), of the kids showed any eye and vision problems. The biggest shock throughout the whole story is that the major cause of the issues, was not video games, I repeat not video games.
Instead, the majority of eye problems were blamed on parents looking to silence their children and educational software that run on mobile devices.
The majority of the original Chinese article is just a lot of common sense packaged with a sensationalized study. Children should read with a healthy distance between their faces and their books, screen time should be kept to a minimal, and they shouldn't rub their eyes with their dirty grubby little hands.
All things said in done, at least this is one time video games weren't blamed for something terrible.
平板危害不小 医生建议3岁以下儿童远离 [Tencent]
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