COMPUTERS can permanently damage children鈥檚 eyes, according to a controversial new study from the US. It found that almost one-third of children may need glasses specifically prescribed for computer use to stop them from developing short-sightedness.
It鈥檚 known that too much close work such as reading can strain your eyes. Many people suffer what鈥檚 known as accommodative lag, where each time they move their eyes over the page of a book, say, they focus slightly beyond the words. The eye muscles then have to work to refocus. Although this strain can cause headaches, there鈥檚 little evidence it can do permanent damage.
Now experts are beginning to suspect that computer screens are even harder on the eyes than books鈥攐r perhaps even bread and high-starch diets (快猫短视频, 6 April, p 9).
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The new study found a significant link between the time children spent at the computer and the extent of lag, and concludes that this puts children at risk of developing myopia.
One of the team, Cary Herzberg, suggests that children who use computers should be tested to see if they need glasses with prescriptions tuned specifically for computer use.
Not all researchers are convinced. Some claim that too much near work makes people near-sighted. 鈥淏ut computer screens are not normally classed as near work,鈥� says Gary Rubin of the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London. As yet, he says, there鈥檚 no good evidence that computers can cause any permanent damage.
However, Herzberg points to the huge rise in short-sightedness in some groups of people鈥攗p to 90 per cent in Asian college students, for example. Wearing glasses that are too strong for close work will simply aggravate the problem, he believes.