Children and the Media: Research from Japan

i read this article about whether the digital revolution is having a physiological effect on children. These are some of the main facts that i highlighted:

'the penetration of media into the home is, however, making it difficult to provide children with such a normal environment. If a child is exposed for long hours to, for instance, television and video games during the periods of frontal association cortex development, that experience will be wired into the brain's record of its own development, and will affect the child's subsequent perception of the environment and emotional life'

'spending long hours using media equipment like television, video game machines and computers reduces the amount of time a child spends doing physical exercises'

'the strong attraction which televison, video, video games and computers has on children has robbed them of time to exercise, to relate to others, and to use their imagination. Elemtary school children have four hours of free time every day after school, of which they spend 70-75% playin with media. This means a lack of physical exercise and fewer hours with which they spend outdoors with their freinds'

'physical movement stimulates sensory integration of the brain and lays down the basis for the higher cognitive functions'

'one of the consequences of a lack of physical activity among children is that an increased number of them may grow up without proper devlopment of sensory integration'

'another outcome of insufficient physical activity is becoming overweight'

'while the average child spent an average of two hours and forty-four minutes watching televison and playing video games, severly overweight children, those significantly above the standard weight, were spending three hours fifty-five minutes - or more than an hour longer - in front of an electronic screen'

'the fact that the number of overweight children has increased since about 1985, exactly when video games started becoming popular, however, leads us to suspect that increased media entertainment, too. has robbed children of oppurtunities for physical activity'

'in virtual reality, it is impossible to physcially experience the joy and fun of using the body or to learn to change emotional gears through human interaction'

'excessive media entertainment for healthy children indirectly hinders the development of the body - by denying the time available for real-world interaction'

'too many hours spent immersed in such a world may hinder the proper development of social skills owing to reduced physical and psycholgical interaction with real-world people'

'online interpersonal relationships can foster the social skills necessary for healthy interpersonal relationships, such as being able to understand the facial expressions of others, and cultivate empathy'

'contact with media in excess of four hours a day will lead to not only problems of overweight through lack of exercise but a variety of other problems stemming from a reduction in interpersonal interaction'