China's Measures Reduced Kids' Screen Time, Says Study
In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, when many children around the world were spending their days out of school, away from friends and in front of screens, China made a decision.
The government wanted to reduce the amount of time young people were spending sitting down. It wanted children to get moving and stay healthy.
So the government told online gaming companies to limit the amount of time online games were available to young people.
It said companies could only let children play for one hour between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and holidays.
It also limited the amount of homework children could be given. Homework was not supposed to take longer than 90 minutes on average for junior high school students, and 60 minutes for primary school students.
Private tuition companies were also given limits on when they could give lessons.
According to a new study, these measures worked.
The study compared young people's time spent sitting in 2020 — before the government measures began — and in 2021, after they had begun.
The researchers looked at data from more than 7,000 primary and secondary school students.
By 2021, the average amount of time children spent sitting had decreased by more than 45 minutes per day.
They were also 20% more likely to spend fewer than two hours using screens per day.
One of the researchers, Bai Li from the University of Bristol, called the results "exciting."
She said usually governments let parents make changes to their children's behaviors themselves, but this "hasn't really worked."
