Teenagers were advised to spend no more than one hour a day on the Internet

A study by scientists from the United States has shown that academic performance and motivation to study falls in those teenage children who devote more than an hour a day to entertainment content on the Internet or video games.

The work is published in the journal Computers. Many studies have shown that a large amount of time spent on the computer has a negative impact on childhood development. However, this has mostly been true for children of elementary school and preschool age. The harm for adolescents, according to some reports, is less significant.

Meanwhile, a new study by scientists from Rutgers University (USA) has shown that it is better for them, as well as for younger children, to devote no more than one hour a day to entertainment content and video games. Otherwise, their academic performance and motivation to study decreases. However, at the weekend, psychologists still “allowed” to spend on the Internet or for games up to four hours a day.

Scientists came to such conclusions as a result of analyzing the National study of educational needs of children in China, which involved about 10 thousand schoolchildren, the average age of which was 13.5 years.

The results showed that children who devoted four or more hours a day to the Internet, social networks or video games were four times more likely to miss school than those who limited their time on the World Wide Web. At the same time, boys used interactive technologies more actively than girls.

According to the researchers, their findings are significant, especially with online learning linked to the pandemic. Interestingly, the same results showed that in moderate “doses” - an hour or less a day - online entertainment content is, on the contrary, beneficial for teens. It promotes their cognitive abilities.