More than 90 percent of Taiwanese aged three to five use personal electronic devices at home, with three-year-olds averaging a screen time of two hours and 17 minutes per day, a survey released yesterday said.
The survey of 1,732 parents, which counted the use of computers, communication devices and consumer electronics, was released at a news conference by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and Parenting magazine.
It found that more than 90 percent of children of that age group used screen-based devices at home, with the youngest children surveyed having the longest average screen time.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
Three-year-olds averaged two hours and 17 minutes of screen time per day, while four-year-olds averaged one hour and 59 minutes and five-year-olds averaged one hour and 36 minutes, the survey showed.
Three-year-old children of lower-middle-class-background had the highest daily screen time, at three hours and two minutes on average, the survey showed.
“The more children are using these devices, the less they are interacting with their parents,” said Chang Chien-ju (張鑑如), a professor in NTNU’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies who is one of the survey’s directors.
“This negatively affects their social, emotional and physical development, as well as their cognitive and linguistic abilities,” she said.
Chang recommended that parents limit their children’s daily screen time to less than one hour, and to use the extra time to play, read or talk with their children, or have meals together.
K-12 Education Administration Director-General Peng Fu-yuan (彭富源) said that personal electronics use was highest among three-year-olds who had not yet entered preschool.
The Ministry of Education is considering sending information about how to reduce children’s use of electronic devices with the statements for monthly childcare subsidies that most parents receive, he said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare recommends that three-year-olds be limited to 30 minutes of screen time per day and that four to six-year-olds be limited to one hour, with a 10-minute break every half an hour to rest their eyes.
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