Giving Compass' Take:

• Gina Salamone reports that two recent studies of the health consequences of screens - including nearsightedness and cancer risks - won't make some parents keep their kids from screens. 

• How can funders help to mitigate the damages caused by excessive screen time?

• Learn about America's digital divide. 

The message is clear from a pair of reports that tie children's digital dependence to health issues: Rip the kids away from cellphones and tablets and make them play outside.

But doctors warn there’s no need to panic, and some parents have no plans on cutting back on their kids’ screen time at all.

“That sign in my pediatrician’s office that says, ‘Remember, no more than two hours of screen time per day,’ can go right in the garbage in my opinion,” says Elizabeth Campbell, a 36-year-old mom of two from Halfmoon, just north of Albany.

A widespread review by the World Cancer Research Fund called Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Cancer: a Global Perspective found that sedentary behavior from increased exposure to cellphones, computers and other electronic entertainment is associated with weight gain, which ups the risk of 12 cancers.

A separate study by King’s College London, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, found that playing computer games, along with other factors, is tied to an increased risk of nearsightedness in childhood.

Meanwhile, Campbell says she doesn’t keep track of _ nor is she worried about _ how often her elementary school-aged kids are glued to screens.

“Both children have ready access to devices when not at school as well as devices used in their classrooms,” the stay-at-home mom says. “In my son’s class they use iPads and, in my daughter’s, they use Chromebooks ... We almost always have the TV on in addition to easy access to the computer, Kindle or iPad.”

Campbell says devices have been especially helpful for her 9-year-old son Patrick, who has moderate autism spectrum disorder, and has been labeled low-verbal and noncommunicative.

She says Patrick first began communicating with help from a symbol-based communication app on his iPad called Proloquo2Go, designed for those who can’t speak.

Read the full article about health consequences of screens by Gina Salamone at The Herald News.