Young males who spend excessive time in front of the television and playing video games are more likely to develop behavioural issues, new Australian study has found. Researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute probed nearly 1,000 eight and nine-year-olds for their study, in which they found that increased exposure to electronic media was associated with poorer mental health in young males. Dr Lisa Mundy from the institute said males who played video games for an average of two hours per day was 2.6 times more likely to develop behavioural and emotional problems, while young males who watched television for two hours per day were 1.7 times more likely to develop hyperactivity and inattention problems. She added it was important for parents to realise the risks of too much exposure to television and video games, particularly in such an impressionable age group. “This is an important age group to study, because it’s the age at which children’s use of media begins to escalate,” Mundy said in a statement released overnight. “It’s also an age at which children are highly sensitive, due to the huge biological, psychological and emotional development, which occurs during this phase of life. It may be that the electronic media causes emotional and behavioural problems or it may be that children with these problems spend more time using electronic media.” Mundy said the study could help researchers develop interventions that could one day lead to better mental health for children and adolescents.