Warning to limit screen time for under-fives

Screen time for children younger than five should be limited to an hour a day and infants should not be exposed to screens at all, the World Health Organisation recommends today in its first guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for young children. Drawn up in response to the global obesity crisis, the guide will be launched at the European Congress for Obesity in Glasgow this weekend, setting out different advice for children of different ages, up to five.

SCREEN time for children younger than five should be limited to an hour a day and infants should not be exposed to it at all, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says today.

The recommendation comes from the first WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for young children.

The guidance, drawn up in response to global obesity crisis, warns: “Physical activity has been identified as a leading risk factor for global mortality and a contributor to the rise in overweight and obesity. Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development and a time during which a child’s habits are formed.”

The recommendations go much farther than recent guidance from the UK’S chief medical officers.

This recommended a break from screens every two hours for all children. It also said that phones should be banned from meal times and overnight.

The WHO guidance, which will be launched at the European Congress for Obesity in Glasgow this weekend, stresses the importance of avoiding sedentary screen time, in an attempt to ensure children get sufficient exercise.

The Daily Telegraph is campaigning for a duty of care on tech giants to prevent online harms, which is now due to be the subject of a Government consultation this summer.

One in five children in England are overweight or obese by the time they start school, rising to one in three by the time they leave. By school age, one in three British children are doing less than 30 minutes exercise each day.

Dr Juana Willumsen, WHO focal point for childhood obesity and physical activity, said: “What we really need to do is bring back play for children. This is about making the shift from sedentary time to playtime, while protecting sleep.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said: “Achieving health for all means doing what is best for health right from the beginning of people’s lives.

“Early childhood is a period of rapid development and a time when family lifestyle patterns can be adapted to boost health gains.”

Failure to meet current physical activity recommendations is responsible for more than five million deaths globally each year across all age groups.