Too much time staring at mobile phones is putting children at risk of ... trends now
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Top eye surgeons are warning that soaring numbers of children are in danger of going blind because of too much time staring at mobile phones and too little time outside.
British children as young as four are wearing special contact lenses to counter the growing problem with doctors increasingly seeing teenagers with the worst possible score for short-sightedness.
It is thought that the worrying increase is a result of children straining to look at mobile phones up close while not spending enough time focusing on further distances outside in daylight.
Dr John Bolger, a consultant ophthalmologist and director of a private eye clinic in North London, says he is deeply concerned by the rise in children developing short-sightedness, known as myopia, describing it as a 'pandemic'.
He told the Mail on Sunday: 'There are more and more myopic children coming into the clinic. It's going up and up. There's no slowing down from what I can see.
Top eye surgeons are warning that soaring numbers of children are in danger of going blind because of too much time staring at mobile phones and too little time outside
Doctors are increasingly seeing teenagers with the worst possible score for short-sightedness
'Myopia is not just having to wear glasses, people can go blind from myopia. This is not a trivial event, this is a serious threat.'
The surgeon explained that extended periods of looking at screens can lead to elongation of the eyeball - and that the effects of the Covid pandemic have exacerbated 'a pandemic of myopia'.
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