Watching way too much TV and playing too much video games have been an issue with parents who are concerned about their overweight children.

It's a good thing that researchers from the University at Buffalo have found a way to deal with it. In a two-year study, these researchers used a device that automatically restricts video-viewing time of children.

It does the trick by providing elder members of the family access to codes which turns on and of devices such as TV sets and video game consoles. On average, it was able to limit the children's viewing time to about 17.5 hours a week.

For this study, 70 boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 7 participated. The results showed that there were statistically significant changes in the body-mass index (BMI) of the children during the sixth and 12th month.

Regarding this experiment, Leonard Epstein, the first author of the study, said that:

Results showed that watching television and playing computer games can lead to obesity by reducing the amount of time that children are physically active, or by increasing the amount of food they consume as they as engaged in these sedentary behaviors.

Although the changes overall were modest, a small effect of using this simple and inexpensive intervention, magnified across the population, may produce important reductions in obesity and obesity-related health problems.