6. January 2009 21:32
If videogames like "Madden NFL" didn't exist, 12-year-old Tom might go outside and toss around a real football - and he'd have a better chance of sprinting for a touchdown without getting winded.
Too much small-screen recreation could undermine physical fitness, Australian researchers have found, in a new study that looks at how e-mail and text messaging, TV, videogames and net surfing affect aerobic endurance in adolescents.
Two hours of daily screen time appears to be the "cut point" above which kids are significantly less likely to be fit, found researchers led by Louise Hardy, Ph.D., at the New South Wales Centre of Overweight and Obesity at the University of Sydney.
"The effect was consistently stronger among all girls compared with boys," Hardy said. "The longer girls spent on screen recreation the less fit they were, and the evidence of this effect increases with age among girls."
Older boys were less affected, no matter how long they spent on screen recreation.
The study doesn't confirm cause and effect: It might be that small screens do lure kids away from active play, or it could be that fit kids are less likely to plop down in front of a screen in the first place.
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