14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study conducted by a team of researchers at the Cornell University in New York state shows that infants should not be allowed to watch TV for a long time, because too much time spent in front of the TV may trigger autism in children. Moreover, medical experts warn that parents should take care of offsprings under 2 years of age and not to let them watch TV at all. Taking into account the fact that more than 1 in 100 British children suffer from autism, scientists strongly urge parents to keep undertwos away from TV. Even when offsprings get older, they are not supposed to spend too much time watching TV because risks of autism are still high.
Cornell University researchers did not have data on infants' watching TV habits. But their findings were rather surprising as they proved that children who live in the wettest regions were the most likely to develop autism symptoms, taking into account the fact that they spend many hours watching TV, as the weather outside does not allow them to play most of the times.
Leader of the study Dr Michael Waldman from the Cornell University stated: "We ran the tests a number of different ways, and basically, every way we run it, we get the same thing. If it rains more, autism goes up. If it rains less autism goes down. Our view is there is no obvious thing correlated with both rain and cable TV access except television viewing. We are not claiming we have definitive evidence. But we have evidence that is awfully suggestive of a link between watching TV and autism."
The team explained that they could not track down the exact cause which links prolonged TV exposure to autism risks, but they pointed out that infants who spend too much time handling the remote may simply lack sociability and communication with the others, which triggers autism. Therefore, parents could prevent their offsprings from living in 'seclusion' by limiting their access to TV to one or 2 hours maximum per day. This way, children can meet many people and communicate with them.
Writing in their report entitled 'Does Television Cause Autism', researchers pointed out the fact that the results of their study: "indicate that just under 40% of autism diagnoses in the three states studied (California, Oregon and Washington) is the result of television watching due to precipitation".