Weekly Question

Is this Guy nuts??

Yesterday and today there has been a lot on Radio 5Live and in quite a few papers regarding a certain doctor - Dr. Aric Sigman, who wants the government of the UK to take action to reduce the amount of TV that our children watch. Well to an extent I agree that too much television can be harmful to children but what Dr. Sigman is proposing goes beyond the pale. I mean this guys recommendations are off the planet.

This is what he recommends;

Children under three - no screen exposure
Children aged three to seven - 30 minutes to one hour per day
Children aged seven to 12 - one hour a day
Children aged 12 to 15 - one and-a-half hours a day
Children aged 16 and over - two hours.

Now can you imagine telling 15 year old Johnny 1/2 way through Heroes that he has to stop watching??!!! I DON'T THINK SO!!!

Here is what the newspapers said;


The amount of TV children watch should be rationed according to a "recommended daily allowance", an expert is due to tell MPs.
Dr Aric Sigman said the Government must take action to cut TV-watching among children as too much increases the risk of health and learning problems. He wants to see parents given recommended daily amount guidelines, much as they are for salt intake, and said "screen media" was a major issue for public health. Studies have shown excessive TV watching is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioural problems and increased obesity in children. One long-term study, published in The Lancet medical journal in 2004, found children who watched more than two hours of television a day between the ages of five and 15 saw their health suffer years later.
Experts made the link between childhood viewing and raised cholesterol levels, obesity and smoking in adulthood.
Dr Sigman will urge the Government to advise parents on the issue and suggests children under three should watch no TV at all. He also believes there should be no TV sets in children's bedrooms and new mothers should be warned of the possible effects.
He rejected claims that setting down guidelines constitutes a "nanny state" and said: "Parents need an ideal reference point, even if they choose to ignore it or cannot adhere to it."
Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Institute of Biology, will voice his concerns at a Children and the Media conference at the House of Commons, organised by pressure group Mediawatch-UK.

Now to me there are a lot of programs out there that are beneficial to the development of children, there is also a lot of rubbish, but in the end it balances out.
The odd thing is that TV viewing has actually gone down, as kids tend to concentrate more now on computers and games machines. Is Dr. Sigman going to target these in a few years time???

But getting the government involved?? Ludicrous in the extreme! How would they control it for a start?
It is down to the parents themselves to control how much our kids watch the TV, we have managed to cut down our kids viewing by doing other things with the kids to keep them entertained, so it isn't all that hard. But try doing it for teenagers HAH!

So there you have it, but what do you think of the idea?