MUMBAI: The common notion among parents is, repeated exposure to late night shows on television stirs up horomone growth in children and accelarates their sexual growth. But researchers from Italy's Florence University have come up with a different theory. According to them, watching screens, regardless of the subject matter, hastens puberty.

The study was carried out in May in the Tuscan town of Cavriglia which detected a huge increase in production of the hormone melatonin in children deprived of television and computers. Melatonin slows down the progress of children to sexual maturity.

The researchers studied 74 children aged between six and 12 who normally watched television for an average of three hours a day. In the week preceding the experiment they were encouraged to do so a bit more. They were then deprived of TV, computers and video games for seven days. In addition, their families were asked to use less artificial light. At the end of the period the children's melatonin levels had risen by an average of 30 per cent. The increases were particularly marked in the youngest children.

A research team member is quoted in reports as saying, "In our study television does not feature, as it does in other scientific studies, as a source of strong emotions, capable of unleashing emotive reactions that contribute to development. For us, it is just a source of light and radiation."