Children's Age Can Play Gadgets And Rules 20-20-20 To Maintain Eye Health

Illustration of children playing gadgets (Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko)

JAKARTA - Many children are currently exposed to gadgets. In fact, the use of gadgets in children is not highly recommended because it can damage eye health.

Dr. Hasiana Lumban Gaol, SpM, at Mata JEC Hospital Kedoya, said that in general children under the age of two should not actually be exposed to gadgets.

Untuk batas penggunaan gadget dari dokter mata tidak ada rekomendasi khusus. Tapi kalau secara umum, sebetulnya anak di bawah dua tahun itu tidak boleh terpapar sama sekali dengan gadget," kata Dokter Hasiana, pada Selasa, 15 April 2025.

For children aged two to ten years, it is recommended to only use an hour's gadget. At the age of 10 years and over, it should only take two hours, because the use of old gadgets is not recommended from medical.

"Then the age of 2 to 10 years should only be a maximum of one hour, and only two hours above 10 years. It is also not recommended for adults to continue to look at gadgets," he explained.

However, restrictions on the use of gadgets are difficult to implement, considering that currently various aspects of life must definitely take advantage of gadgets. Therefore, there are rules in the use of gadgets to maintain eye health, which are called the 20-20-20 rule.

However, the implementation is rather difficult, because the school is full of tablets. So we from the opaque provide recommendations called 20-20-20," he continued.

This 20-20-20 rule divides the use of gadgets, rest time, and what is done to maintain good eye health.

"So every time we look closely, including a cellphone, if it's been 20 minutes, then stop for at least 20 seconds. Then look much more than 20 feet, or about 6 meters. That's an effort that can be done to maintain eye health," concluded Doctor Hasiana.