United Nations: Infants under the age of one year should not be exposed to electronic screens at all and “sedentary” screen time for children under five must not be more than an hour a day, according to the WHO’s new guidelines.
The guidelines were issued as part of a campaign to tackle the global obesity crisis and ensure that young children grow up fit and well, particularly since development in the first five years of life contributes to children’s motor and cognitive development and lifelong health.
In recommendations specifically aimed at under-fives for the first time, the UN health agency said that about 40 million children around the globe — around six per cent of the total — are overweight. Of that number, half are in Africa and Asia, it noted.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that children under five must spend less time sitting watching screens, or restrained in prams and seats, get better quality sleep and have more time for active play if they are to grow up healthy. “Achieving health for all means doing what is best for health right from the beginning of people’s lives,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The new guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age were developed by a WHO panel of experts.The guidelines – which refer to passive activities such as watching cartoons, for example, as opposed to going online to talk to a grandparent – build on data gathered in countries including Canada and Australia, which show that as many as 75 per cent of children do not have healthy lifestyles.
The guidelines recommended that infants (less than one year) should be physically active several times a day in a variety of ways, particularly through interactive floor-based play.
They should not be restrained for more than one hour at a time, whether in prams/strollers, high chairs, or strapped on a caregiver’s back. Screen time for them is not recommended at all. For young children aged two years, sedentary screen time such as watching TV or videos should be no more than 60 minutes and the less is better.
