I still remember the exact moment. We were at parents' evening and his teacher pulled me aside. "He's been squinting at the board for weeks," she said. "Have you had his eyes checked recently?"
My son was seven. He'd been on screens — tablets, my phone, the odd bit of TV — for most of his young life. Like every other kid his age, it was just… normal. But in that moment, something clicked for me. Not just the screen time, but what it might actually be doing to his eyes.
We went to the optician the following Saturday. Mild myopia, the optician said. Not severe. But the trajectory, if left unchecked, could worsen. She asked how much time he spent outdoors. Not enough, I admitted. And screens? Too much, I quietly knew.
Myopia — short-sightedness — is now one of the fastest-growing conditions in children globally. A 2021 meta-analysis estimated that by 2050, nearly half the world's population will be myopic, with children who spend more time on screens and less time outdoors at significantly higher risk. I didn't know that then. I do now.
What I also didn't fully understand was blue light. Screens — whether tablets, phones or televisions — emit high-energy blue light that penetrates deeper into the eye than other wavelengths. Over time, this can contribute to digital eye strain, disrupted sleep, and potentially cumulative retinal stress. Children's eyes are particularly vulnerable because their crystalline lenses are clearer than adults', meaning they filter out less of that light.
"Children's eyes are not fully developed until around age 12," Dr. Annegret Dahlmann-Noor of Moorfields Eye Hospital has noted in interviews, "and exposure during critical development windows matters enormously."
I'm not writing this to scare anyone. I'm writing it because I wish someone had told me earlier. We made some changes — more outdoor time, stricter screen limits in the evenings, and blue light filtering glasses for when he does use screens. His eyes haven't worsened at the last two check-ups. Small wins.
The whiteboard incident changed how I look at everything we sell here. Every product on this site exists because I went looking for solutions after that parents' evening. The anti-blue light glasses were the first thing I found. They weren't perfect initially, but they were a start.
If your child is squinting, rubbing their eyes, or complaining of headaches after screen time — don't wait for a teacher to flag it. Book that optician appointment. And take a proper look at how much blue light they're absorbing every day.