Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, told MPs yesterday that ministers should TV viewing should be rationed with a system of "recommended daily allowances", similar to guidelines for salt intake.
Children aged three to seven should be limited to 30 minutes to one hour a day while seven to 12-year-olds should watch an hour a day.
This can be upped to one-and-a-half hours for 12 to 15-year-olds and two hours for over-16s.
Dr Sigman, who reviewed 35 academic studies for his report on the health risks of TV viewing, said the findings implicated television in a massive unforeseen health scandal.
Speaking at a conference in Westminister yesterday, he urged ministers to do more to protect children from the adverse effects of too many hours planted in front of the box.
"Many believe that we shouldn't make parents feel guilty about the amount of time children spend in front of a screen and the early age at which they start" Dr Sigman said.
"But we must now make a clear judgment that child health is more important than parental guilt.
"At the moment, the British population watches television for more hours per day and reads less than any other nation in Europe.
"Our children are Europe's most obese. An increasing number of infants have TV screens in their bedrooms and by the time children reach adolescence they spend an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of a TV screen."
Dr Sigman, who has written a book on the dangers of too much TV, went on:
"Screen media must now be considered a major public health issue and reducing television viewing must become the new priority for child health
"While popular phrases such as "striking a balance" or "everything in moderation" may sound reassuringly sensible, one of the main obstacles in encouraging people to reduce their children's screen time is the vagueness of the terms "moderation" and "excessive".
"We haven't been told what excessive actually means. Most of the damage linked to television screen viewing seems to occur beyond watching one to one-and-a-half hours per day, irrespective of the quality of the programme.
"Yet the average child watches three to five times this amount."
His report claims that too many hours spent slumped in front of screens hampers brain development since TV viewing, unlike reading, fails to provide growing brains with the stimulation needed to foster analytical thinking.
One long-term study, conducted in New Zealand, tracked children from birth and concluded childhood TV viewing was linked with poor educational achievement by the age of 26.
Youngsters also had shorter attention spans and a greater risk of developing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Meanwhile puberty may be hastened by too much television.
Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s, partly because their average weight has increased but possibly also because of lower melatonin levels linked to TV exposure.
THESE are the 15 harmful effects of TV on children:
• Obesity. A result of little exercise.
• Disrupted hormones. Light from televisions suppresses production of the key hormone melatonin.
• Lowered immune system.
• Reduced melatonin may increase the chance of mutations in cell DNA, which causes cancer.
• Premature puberty. Also linked to low levels of melatonin.
• Sleep disorders. Over-stimulating the senses causes sleeplessness.
• Autism. Linked to a lack of social interaction.
• Increased body fat. Altered levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin produce fat and boost appetite.
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