DOHA: Dr Masouma Al-Mutairi, professor of educational sociology at Kuwait University, revealed yesterday that children who watch TV for several hours a day may develop various mental and physical illnesses.

In a presentation to the first 'Arab Media and the Family' conference, which opened here on Sunday, Dr Al-Mutairi said that kids who plug into the world of television and the Internet for long hours suffer from sleeplessness, which in turn affects their physical and mental health.

Those kids could experience a mental blackout and be unable of think soundly and logically," she said. "They are vulnerable to psychological disorders, such as illogical panicking because their imaginations are in full play. The violent movies and games on TV and the internet thrill grownups, you can imagine its impact on kids.

Watching TV for long hours each day may affect their sociability because they are locked into a visual world, remote from the real world," she pointed out. "They become unable to communicate effectively with their family members and friends and are unable to acquire basic experiences about the real world.

Regarding the educational aspect of the problem, she said such children usually suffer from sleeplessness and grogginess and become unable to concentrate and study well. "The time schoolchildren spend watching TV and the internet is double the amount of time they spend studying," she said, citing field studies. "School children in the Arab world spend up to 1,000 hours a year watching TV and playing on the internet. They spend half of that time studying.

She added that these are serious problems that occur during a crucial stage of a child's life, when they are supposed to acquire basic experiences about education and social behavior. She criticized the mass media for failing to offer substantive content to children and give precedence to 'destructive imagination' over social values.

Nowadays, the Arab family shoulders a greater responsibility for bringing up their children property and counterbalancing the negative impacts of TV and the internet," she concluded.

The 'Arab Media and the Family' conference, hosted by the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development (DIIFSD), gathered experts and representatives from several organizations from 13 Arab countries. The conference concluded yesterday. - Kuwait times