1-Year-Old Baby Watching YouTube for Long Periods... Clear Signs of Social Skill Decline

Tohoku University in Japan Surveys 7,097 Children
Longer Screen Time Linked to Developmental Decline
Gradual Improvement After Age 4

A study has found that exposure to TV and smartphone videos can impair various abilities in infants and toddlers. In particular, babies exposed to videos showed lower social skills compared to those who were not.

The New York Times (NYT) in the U.S. reported this on the 21st (local time), citing research from a team at Tohoku University in Japan. The study was published in the latest issue of JAMA Pediatrics, the journal of the American Medical Association.

The research team analyzed 7,097 children to examine the characteristics of those with longer video exposure times compared to those without. The results showed that 1-year-old children with longer exposure times exhibited reduced social skills and fine motor abilities at the age of 2, one year later.

Babies who frequently watch videos on TV or smartphones were found to have delayed developmental abilities.

The longer the video exposure time, the more pronounced these effects became. However, developmental delays began to improve after the age of 4.

Nevertheless, these findings do not establish a clear causal relationship between video exposure and child developmental abilities.

David Lecovitz, a senior researcher at Yale University's Child Study Center, pointed out, "Face-to-face contact with parents and peers has an absolute influence on learning communication-related information such as physical expressions and voice changes," adding, "These skills cannot be learned through videos."

In other words, it is not that videos reduce children's cognitive abilities, but rather that children who watch videos for extended periods have fewer opportunities to interact with others.

Meanwhile, according to the research team's survey, 48% of households exposed their 1-year-old children to less than one hour of video per day. This was followed by 1 to 2 hours (30%) and 2 to 4 hours (18%).

Households that played videos for more than 4 hours a day for 1-year-old children accounted for 4%. Younger parents and low-income families tended to have longer video exposure times.

Meanwhile, organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend limiting video viewing time for children aged 2 to 5 to less than one hour per day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.