Doctors to parents: Limit kids' texts, tweets, online time

CHICAGO (AP) - Parents should limit kids' tweeting and texting and keep smartphones and laptops out of bedrooms, a pediatricans group says.

The recommendations are bound to prompt eye-rolling and laughs from many teens but the influential pediatricians group American Academy of Pediatrics says parents need to know that unrestricted media use can have serious consequences.

It's been linked with violence, cyberbullying, school woes, obesity, lack of sleep and a host of other problems. It's not a major cause of these troubles, but "many parents are clueless" about the profound impact media exposure can have on their children, said Dr Victor Strasburger, lead author of the new policy.

"This is the 21st century and they need to get with it," said Dr Strasburger, a University of New Mexico adolescent medicine specialist.