They warn that babies should not watch TV or phone screens

The World Health Organization on Wednesday issued its first guidelines on the time that children under five should spend in front of a screen a day. This is not much and nothing at all for those who are not yet a year old.

The United Nations health agency said that children under 5 should not spend more than an hour a day watching screens, and the least time possible was the best.

The guidelines are somewhat similar to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The group recommends to avoid screen exposure to children under 18 months, except during video calls.

He notes that parents of children under 2 years of age should choose a "high quality program" with educational value that can be seen with one of the parents in order to help their children understand this. that they see.

Some groups emphasize that the WHO guidelines on screen exposure do not consider the potential benefits of digital media.

The WHO recommendation "focuses more on exposure and does not take into account the content or context of use," said Andrew Przybylski, director of research at Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford. "All the time on the screen is created in the same way."

The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health of Great Britain has indicated that the available data are not sufficient to allow experts to establish a parameter of the appropriate level of exposure time to screenings.

"Our research has shown that there is currently no evidence to support the establishment of exposure limits to screens," said Dr. Max Davie, head of the department's ### 39, improvement of health. "The restrictions recommended by the WHO do not seem proportionate to the potential damage."

WHO has not detailed the potential damage caused by excessive exposure, but has indicated that guidelines – which also include recommendations for physical activity and sleep hours – were needed to make facing the increase in the number of sedentary cases among the population in general. He pointed out that physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for death and contributes to increased rates of obesity.

The agency said that babies under one year old should be on their stomachs at least half an hour a day and that older children should do at least three hours of physical activity by day.