Too much screen time could be hurting your children's learning and possibly contributing to their likelihood of being obese, new studies have found.
But video games don't appear to be to blame.
The first study, published in journal PLOS One, found heavy TV watching - two or more hours a day - at ages eight and nine led to a fall in reading ability two years later, while too much computer use - more than an hour a day - led to a similar drop in numeracy "equivalent to a loss in learning of around four months".
AUT children's health researcher Scott Duncan told The AM Show on Thursday it's hard to blame parents for kids' increased screen time.
"It's a pretty easy way of getting them off your back for a while, but I think probably because of that... we're seeing a lot more children on screens for a lot longer, just as a time-filler.
"Obviously they're doing it more at school now, especially with COVID, but even without COVID, before that happened there was this 'bring your own device' movement. There's a lot more at school."
George Patton of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, which carried out the research, said the findings underline the importance of staying on top of the COVID-19 pandemic so kids can get back in the classroom, rather than rely on tablets and video chats with their teachers.
"This question about the effects of modern media on children's learning has never been more important given the effects of the pandemic on children's use of time. It underlines again the importance of children moving safely back into classrooms and face-to-face learning with their teachers."
Prof Duncan believes the problem is the lack of variation screens provide.
"Their brain isn't developing as well as they could. The brain is a magnificent organ, but it needs variety to develop its maximum potential. When you limit that to screens... it only develops a certain part of the brain.
"So when they're not going outside, they're not climbing trees, they're not mucking around with their friends - because that time's being supplanted by screens - then that brain isn't developing fully."
The study itself said electronic media "may displace other activities, such as physical activity, sleep or homework, all of which have been positively associated with academic performance".
As for the decline in maths skills, "Some evidence from cognitive neuroscience suggests stronger links between early attention and mathematical skills than early attention and reading skills. Computer use may disrupt attention, which in turn impacts performance in numeracy."
Prof Duncan also said thanks to computers, kids don't have as much opportunity to get bored as they did in the past when there weren't endless entertainment options being piped in via the internet.
"When we were kids there was a lot more boredom in childhood - and boredom breeds creativity... they're not getting that stimulation to have to make their own fun and do things themselves."
His advice to parents is to try and resist chucking an iPad their way as soon as they get fidgety.
"They won't sit there for two hours being bored. They'll find something to do."
The study didn't find a link between reduced academic performance and videogames, saying they actually appear to help kids learn to problem-solve. But just what exactly the kids were watching or doing on their computers wasn't tracked, making it hard to come to solid conclusions about what might have been harming the kids' academic results.
A second study, yet to be peer-reviewed and presented at the The European and International Congress on Obesity this week, found chidren's chances of being obese could be linked directly to how much screen time they are having and how much sleep they're missing out on as a result.
"Sleep is an often undervalued but important part of children's development, with a regular lack of sleep causing a variety of health problems," said Viveka Guzman of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, who led the research.
"Our findings suggest that sleep duration plays a role in the link between screen time and [being] overweight."
Prof Duncan said this backs up research he's done.
"We found that kids who exceeded the screen time guidelines at two-and-a-half were much more likely to be overweight at four. There's definitely a link."
