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Just to add on, here are a couple of tips to protect your child’s eyesight: Having a balanced diet: A well balanced diet with green and red leafy vegetables like carrots, spinach and beetroot, also yellow fruits like papayas and mangoes (high in carotene). Take breaks: Try to remind your child to take a break after 20 mins of staring at the computer/tv screen. Best to look at some greenery that are a distance away. These are very basic but would be good for maintaining good eyesight. It may be difficult to take such frequent breaks. I find sitting near the window a good way to facilitate that. By having the computer near the window, one simply need to look out every once in a while. Really helps with reducing fatigue in the eyes.
If the kid is sitting in computer for prolonged hours, it makes the kid blink less and can make eyes dry. Over a longer period of time, it can affect vision. Though, there is no direct evidence that watching television from near or watching too much can weaken the eyesight, but one should limit the time of using electronics anyway. Carrots are believed to be good for good eyesight as they have Vitamin A. http://www.thehealthsite.com/diseases-conditions/natural-remedies-for-better-eyesight/
Most of the people already mentioned about how eyesight can be affected. Although restricting is important, sometimes they might not work or have the desired effects you want. I would rather have the kids pursue different activities like sports, music, arts of their interest. This will positively affect them and develop self confidence that is very crucial at a young age. Basically, they would have less time for TV and other stuff that you are worried about.
Make sure your kids spend time doing mid range and far range activities. I try to get the kids outside for a little bit every day - for various reasons, but eye sight is one of them. Even a walk, and looking at the plants and critters in the neighbourhood is good. Another good habit to cultivate is sunglasses. Cataracts run in my family, and sunglasses are preventative.
Watching TV at a near distance, too much screen time on ipad or phones as well as reading or studying in dim lighting will cause eye problems at a young age. I would suggest to explain to your child the importance of taking care of their eyes and teach them to take regular eye breaks as well as eye exercises that they can do to strengthen the muscles in their eyes.
I think frequent use of gadgets. Based on my experience, I witnessed how my little sister grew up. Almost all day she's infront of the computer since she was a baby. She now has a bad eyesight with very high grade lenses unfortunately. Another thing is that she can't stop her habit being infront of her gadgets the whole day.
My eyesight went bad around the age of 6 because I liked to read in the dark (using a torchlight) and I would watch TV while lying down on the living room floor. These days, with the advent of gadgets like tablets and computers, I reckon prolonged usage of those to be some of the contributors to bad eyesight.
I feel kids should not use too much of gadgets especially at a close proximity. Lying down and watching tv in a very near distance will also affect their eyesight. Restricting kids to 30mins each session to a maximum of 2 hrs is alot for 24hrs.
I would say TV and mobile devices, so you should limit the time spent and make sure they take a break in between to avoid too much strain on the eyes. Also make sure that your kids read in a adequate lighting to ensure good eyesight
Watching tv at a very near distance, rubbing eyes when itchy, reading at night or while lying down could be bad for the eyes. Correct your kids' habits if you found them doing one of these. Also, have your kids' eye examined regularly.