A $100 device that can stop kids watching too much TV

Would you pay $100 to stop your children eating too much and spending less time in front of the TV?

Yeah, I thought you would. Well, a new electronic device can help you do just that.

Called the TV Allowance - made by Mindmaster Inc and invented by Randal Levenson in 1991 - it controls the amount of time your kids can watch TV.

When their screen time allowance is used up, the TV or computer simply does not work. Genius!

So I guess you’re wondering how it stops them eating so much?

Well, apart from the obvious fact that they would be more likely to play out once their TV time has been cut, a new study into the eating habits of kids has found that TV actually encourages eating unhealthy eating.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo, the State University of New York, found that children who spent less time in front of the television are more likely to lose weight – and it had nothing to do with the fact they were exercising more!

So how did they come up with that? Well, the study looked at 70 overweight four to seven-year-olds over two years.

They spilt the group in half, with one half allowed to do whatever they want while the rest had TV Allowance devices fitted to their TVs and computers which sliced their normal viewing time in half.

And the results? Lead author Leonard Epstein said: “At the end of the trial, 30 per cent of kids (whose screen time was restricted) went from overweight to not being overweight. In the control group, only 18 percent did.”

So if they weren’t exercising more, what was it?

The study, published in the March edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, suggests kids are more likely to snack while watching TV.

It states: “Television viewing is related to consumption of fast food and foods and beverages that are advertised on television.

“Viewing cartoons with embedded food commercials can increase choice of the advertised item in preschoolers, and television commercials may prompt eating.”

Such research is invaluable, especially when you consider that, according to new federal research, 16% of six to 19-year-olds are overweight – almost double the figure recorded a decade ago.