Computer games can cause dementia in kids

Computer games can cause dementia in kids

Computer games and Facebook can mess up kids' brains, a top scientist warned.

Baroness Greenfield said they may lead to temporary "dementia".

She urged youngsters to turn off their computers, go outdoors and enjoy fresh air instead. In a single year, children can spend up to 2,000 hours staring at a screen, which poses risks such as computer addiction.

The baroness a leading neuroscientist said although technology had many benefits and could harness creativity, overuse was dangerous.

She insisted: "Screen technologies cause high arousal which in turn activates the brain system's underlying addiction. This results in the attraction of yet more screen-based activity."

She claimed connections in the brain "can be temporarily disabled by activities with a strong sensory content 'blowing the mind'.

"Or they can be inactivated permanently by degeneration ie. dementia."

Baroness Greenfield stressed: "There is a need to be outside, to climb trees and feel the grass under your feet and the sun on your face." She also blasted the rise in "trolling" where malicious messages are posted online and the tendency of youngsters to live their lives through Facebook.

The baroness added at a conference in Dorset: "What does it say about their identity if they are defining themselves by how others see them?" - www.thesun.co.uk