April, 15 2011, 01:00pm EDT
Screen-Free Week: April 18-24, 2011 Children Around the Country to Turn Off Screens and Turn on Life!
It's almost Screen-Free Week--the annual national celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off TV, video games, computers, and hand-held devices and turn on life. Instead of relying on screens for entertainment, they play, read, daydream, explore nature, and enjoy spending time with family and friends.
When: April 18-24, 2011
Nationwide
It's almost Screen-Free Week--the annual national celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off TV, video games, computers, and hand-held devices and turn on life. Instead of relying on screens for entertainment, they play, read, daydream, explore nature, and enjoy spending time with family and friends.
When: April 18-24, 2011
Why: Children spend far too much time with screens: an astonishing average of 32 hours a week for preschoolers and even more for older children. Time with screens is linked to poor school performance, childhood obesity, attention issues and other health and social problems.
Where: Homes, schools, libraries, faith communities, municipalities, and businesses around the country. For a listing of Screen-Free activities, please see https://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/events.html.
Who: Screen-Free Week is endorsed by seventy-five organizations including American Public Health Association, the National Head Start Association, KaBOOM!, the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity and the US Play Coalition. The City of Boston and the State of Massachusetts have proclaimed April 18-24 officially Screen-Free Week for residents. For a complete list of endorsers, see https://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/endorsers.html.
Nationally recognized experts on children and media--as well as children, parents, and teachers participating in Screen-Free Week--will be available for interviews both prior to and during the week.
For more information about Screen-Free Week, please see https://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek/index.html.
For a fact sheet on children and screen time, please visit: https://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/factsheets/screentime.pdf.
Fairplay, formerly known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, educates the public about commercialism's impact on kids' wellbeing and advocates for the end of child-targeted marketing. Fairplay organizes parents to hold corporations accountable for their marketing practices, advocates for policies to protect kids, and works with parents and professionals to reduce children's screen time.
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