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.
