Most experts agree that watching TV for long periods will not harm your child’s eyesight.Also, contrary to popular myth, sitting too close to a TV will not damage your child’s eyes. Children can focus at close distance without eyestrain better than adults. Therefore children often develop the habit of holding reading materials close to their eyes or sitting right in front of the television. There is no evidence that this damages the eyes either in children or adults. Children usually grow out of this habit as they grow older. However, for children, as for adults, focusing the eyestoo long on the one thing can cause eyestrain. Where did the warning come from that watching too much TV can damage your eyes? Probably from the early days of television when there were warnings following a factory error that caused some colour TVs to emit excessive X-rays from the cathode ray tube. At the time, health officials said that the excessive levels of radiation wouldn't harm most viewers. However, they did warn against children sitting close to the television for more than an hour because of X-rays coming through the vents on the bottom of the set. Today’s TVs use different technologies. Op.Dr.Ahmet UMAY Bristol University Ophtalmology Section UK Resource : WebMD Medical Reference Picture : Royal National Institute of Blind People 105 Judd Street, London WC1H 9NE rnib org uk Nb news