Youngsters who watch too much television are likely to suffer later behavioural problems – but researchers have said that children may be able to reverse the damage.
The Johns Hopkins University experts discovered that kids below five who watched over two hours a day increased their risk but if they cut back by five years old, the risk is no longer a problem.
However, Dr Richard House, a lecturer in psychotherapy at Roehampton University, and a researcher into the effects of television in young children, said: “Human behaviour is far more complex than these measures of behaviour and social skills – there may well be some more subtle form of harm that is undetected. Every child is different, and I’m very sceptical about the notion that it is appropriate to give families blanket recommendations about the amount of television their children should watch. Some children are extremely sensitive to the effects of television.”
