The Importance of Protecting Children’s Vision

At any age, vision is an incredibly important aspect of our lives, but children today face some unique challenges that previous generations have not really faced in quite the same way. As a result, they need extra care with their vision as they develop, because problems that begin here will continue, and likely worsen, as they progress through life.

The Challenges Of The Digital Age

Children today spend a huge amount of time looking at and using digital devices, more so than any previous generation. From TVs, phones and tablets for entertainment to screens used in education, even doing homework involves screen time today, children spend so much of their time around screens in this digital age.

In fact, a recent study showed that for younger children, they can spend over six hours a day using devices with screens, and for teens, that can spiral to more than nine hours. This is not a good environment for the eyes, but because digital devices have become so normalized in our lives, we don’t always see it as an issue.

The problem is, we tend to forget that digital eye strain can affect people of all ages, and for the protection of children’s eyesight it is important that we take measures to address this risk. But if we look at the current statistics, those risks are very real. The CDC reports that 6.8% of under eighteens have been diagnosed with vision problems, whether that is damage to the eyes or one some form of children’s eye disease. Around 3% of the under eighteens are children with vision loss, whether clinically blind or vision impaired, and defined as having trouble seeing even if they wear glasses or other vision aids.

While too much screen time is not such an obvious risk to children’s eye health as the dangers of playing baseball, basketball, swimming or operating machinery in woodwork or metalwork class, it can cause lifelong visual problems. With those sports and activities, eye protection for children is a must, and yet for screens it is very rarely discussed...

Key Measures For Protecting Children’s Vision

With the potential consequences of too much screen time impacting vision health, it makes sense to take action to create a strategy for eye protection for children. There are a number of things we can do both as parents and as a society to help manage the issues around the overuse of digital technology.

One of the key steps in the protection of children’s eyesight is to understand how much screen time each child has during a day and take steps to control it. This can be achieved in a number of ways, but an overall strategy of control is best. Adding parental controls to any phones or tablets that restrict time makes it easier to manage, but you can do more. Make it a rule that there is no TV or streaming on devices while eating, for instance, and avoid using TV or video as background noise.

The environment itself can be a problem too, you should avoid situations where children are viewing bright screens in dark rooms, as this combination can result in children with vision loss. Instead, having them do homework on a laptop in a bright, well-lit room, natural light is even better. Finally, children follow their parent’s lead, so set an example in how much you use screens too. It can be difficult to persuade children there is a danger in using devices too much if they see you using them even more...

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