Are kids spending too much time in front of a screen?

A leading psychologist issued a warning on the amount of time kids spend in front of a screen, according to a report on today's BBC News site.

It contends the average 10-year old has access to five different screens in the home.

With the proliferation of cheaper 7" tablets like Nexus 7 and the upcoming iPad Mini, plus the upcoming Wii U, the issue is likely to get worse before it gets better.

In Harris' recent TouchscreenLife report, we asked parents whether or not they were concerned about the amount of time kids spend in front of a screen. Let's see what they said...

Nearly 3 in 5 parents expressed concern about the amount of time their kids spend in front of a screen.

Some strong connections have been made about a sedentary lifestyle and obesity and other related medical problems.

But Dr Sigman's analysis goes further than this to suggest prolonged screen time affects dopamine levels in the brain, related to reward effects, that can lead to attention span issues, depression and other psychological ailments.

Do many kids spend too much time in front of screens? It answer appears to be a strong yes if the problems Dr Sigman reports are valid.

The behaviour, however, is almost certainly going to get worse as cheaper, more family-budget friendly tablets come onto the market. It's not just about tablets, of course, but TouchscreenLife is chock full of analysis to show how addictive such devices are among adults, let alone kids.

Any observation of your typical commuter train shows a carriage load of people transfixed by their smartphone, Kindle or tablet before them. If the prior generation, which had the TV, PC and consoles to occupy their screen-time is addicted, imagine what the current generation, who have added smartphones and tablets to their screen repertoire, is dealing with.

In the past, I've always taken a skeptical view and I've thought that (sedentary lifestyle medical problems aside) negative articles about screen time were over-stated. There are positive effects of video gaming, social networking and general internet usage and these, in my opinion, were sidelined for the big, scary headline. I put them in the same category as the MailOnline's or HuffPo's "X causes Cancer" articles and tended to dismiss them as hysterical.

As each generation's screen exposure and screen addiction gets worse, as it surely will, and if the balance of benefit/harm is shown to be negative, then the issue will need to be re-evaluated in a new light.