Children pile on the pounds glued to screens all summer

OBESITY levels are soaring over school summer holidays because children are spending four hours a day staring at screens, research suggests.

A study of 400 children found that just six weeks’ holidays was enough to reverse major fitness gains – and increase the number of overweight and obese children by one fifth.

The British study by Ukactive found that during the academic year the pupils, aged 9 and 10, made steady improvements in their fitness levels. But around 80 per cent of those gains were reversed during lazy summer holidays, in which PE lessons and walks to school were replaced by long days hunched over gadgets.

At the start of the summer, 20 per cent of participants – or 80 – were overweight or obese. But just six weeks later, the figure was 24 per cent, or 96.

The study by Ukactive, a body set up to encourage physical fitness, came as a survey involving more than 1,000 families found that children were spending an average of 174 hours on gadgets, games consoles or watching television over the six weeks – an average of just over four hours’ screen time daily.

The research by Sainsbury’s was released to coincide with its launch of a chain of summer camps, costing £7.50 a day, which offer children sports such as tennis, cricket, dodgeball and football, as well as arts and crafts.

The 70 clubs, based mainly in schools, which also serve a healthy lunch and snacks, are aimed at those aged five to 15 and are run by the holiday club provider Premier Education. Baroness Tanni Grey-thompson, the former Paralympian and the chairman of Ukactive, backed the plans.

She said: “We have a national crisis with our children’s health, as today’s generation is the least active in history. This situation is magnified during the school summer holidays, where children lose up to 80 per cent of their fitness levels across the six-week break.”

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said too many children were being allowed a stream of junk food during the holidays, with child minders and grandparents falling prey to “pester power”.