Recommended Screen time by age: The phone which you keep attached to it all the time considering it to be your most important companion and keep your eyes fixed on it while eating, drinking, getting up and sitting, this phone is your biggest enemy. If you continuously scroll social media sites, watch movies or play games on your phone for several hours every day and cannot live without doing so, then consider that preparations have been made to wear glasses on your eyes.
Many research studies of RP Center for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi, are a witness to the fact that due to the habit of looking at smartphones, the maximum number of complaints of refractive error and myopia are being seen in the eyes of the people and due to these diseases, older people are suffering from these diseases. Not only this, children are also wearing glasses at an early age.
Since Corona, the screen time of both children and adults has increased. At that time, due to online studies and online work, children and adults used to stay on the phone screen for 6-8 hours. Now that this time has become 2-3 hours, parents are rest assured that the screen time has reduced. While it is still above the danger mark. Due to looking at the phone for so long, vision is getting seriously affected and the number of eyestrain is also increasing.
How many hours of phone viewing is safe for children?
Professor Rohit Saxena at RP Center for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS Delhi says that children should not be shown phones at all. Tell them that the phone is only for talking. It is not at all safe for the eyes of small children to look at the phone. This will only harm them. Make them do outdoor activities instead of smartphones.
There are many children who eat food while looking at their phones. When parents are busy in some work, children keep looking at the phone by keeping it very close to their eyes. Or the parents themselves become free by giving phones to their children. All these things are bad.
What is the screen time limit for adults?
Dr. says that there are no such guidelines regarding the number of phone hours for elders that if they look at it for so long then their eyes will be safe, but still elders should not look at the phone for more than two hours. However, this does not mean that looking at the phone for two hours is safe. You should keep this time to a minimum.
But if someone’s work is on phone, laptop and computer, then how can he be advised to reduce screen time. Still, it is important for them not to look at the phone or at least look at it after work. Keep this time less than 2 hours.
Is the phone causing harm to the eyes?
Studies conducted after Corona have shown that eye diseases like refractive error and myopia are increasing rapidly in both small children and adults. After Covid, the prevalence of both these diseases is being seen even in small children of 7-8 years of age. Whereas till 5-6 years ago, these eye diseases were seen in children above 13 years of age. It is the result of the smartphones used during Corona that today 55 crore people out of the total population of India are in need of a pair of glasses.
This study took place in RP Center
The prevalence of myopia is increasing rapidly in every next generation across the world. In a study by RP Center in 2001, myopia was seen at 7 percent. When screening was done again in the same area after 10 years, myopia had reached about 13 percent of the people. The recent surveys conducted show that more than 20 percent of the country’s population is suffering from refractive error or myopia. Therefore, keep the phone as far away as you can.