Parents, have you ever wondered how exposure to media sources impacts the physical health of your kids? A study by the US National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Centre experts is here to answer the question for you.

The researchers analyzed 173 studies done since 1980 about the effects of media consumption on children. They found that 80 percent of the studies agreed that heavy media exposure increases the risk of harm, including obesity, smoking, sex, drug and alcohol use, attention problems and poor grades. When referring to sex particularly, 93 percent of the studies found that children with greater media exposure have sex earlier.

“Our kids are sponges, and we really need to remember they learn from their environment,” said co-author Cary P. Gross, professor at Yale School of Medicine.

Just to make an idea about how serious the situation is, the study found that the average modern child spends nearly 45 hours a week with television, movies, magazines, music, the Internet, cellphones and video games. By comparison, children spend 17 hours a week with their parents on average and 30 hours a week in school.

The study wants to increase awareness among parents, teachers and society at large about the negative effects of media on our kids’ health and, consequently, on our feature. If we fail to take measures now, our kids will grow up as unhealthy people with serious diseases, a situation which is not at all one that could be good for our future. More money will be spent on health; too many days will be lost because illnesses and the list could go on.

The study highlights the importance of limiting children’s use of media and teaching them to critically evaluate the ever-growing volume of test, images, and sounds with which they are bombarded, said co-author Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health. “The idea that this is having a really measurable adverse impact on health makes it important to take this seriously. Every year, we have 4 million new kids. How long are we going to wait?”