Use of Digital Devices by Young Children on the Rise

Many pediatric optometrists believe that excessive use of digital devices can put children at risk for early myopia. Recent reports have documented the potentially troubling increase of usage of these devices by young children.

• One quarter of parents use mobile devices to put their young children to sleep, according to a USA Today article. The research, originally published in Pediatrics, was conducted using a 20-question survey of nearly 300 parents. The families surveyed were mostly in urban, low-income, minority communities.
   
• According to a New York Times report, the research revealed that parents had given their children, by the age of four, tablets, smartphones or other devices to use without supervision. Furthermore, the article stated that “seventy percent of the parents reported allowing their children, ages 6 months to 4 years old, to play with mobile devices while the parents did housework, and 65 percent said they had done so to placate a child in public.”   

As doctors may recall, the National Eye Institute conducted a large study published in the December 2009 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology that found the prevalence of nearsightedness among Americans has increased more than 66 percent over the past 30 years.