AHLAlerts: American Health Line’s Blog

Kids have a new reason not to believe their parents’ warnings about 3D movies hurting their eyes — not that children read medical journals or anything.

The Sacramento Business Journal reports:

It turns out that while parents might be concerned about the long-term affects of 3D movies and other content, it may not be as harmful as you’d think.

A study commissioned by Rancho Cordova-based VSP Vision Care found that while 6.5 of parents said their children actually had problems watching 3D content, 70 percent believed that it would be harmful — impacting vision in the short or long-term. Another 69 percent thought 3D would cause headaches or dizziness; 65 percent thought it would cause nausea and 64 percent thought 3D would negatively affect visual development.

Yet parents still take their kids to 3D movies — 49 percent took their kids to such movie sin the last year, and 56 percent planned to take them to see such movies this year.

Dr. Justin Bazan, a Brooklyn, NY-based VSP provider, said there are misconceptions about 3D. “There is no medical evidence that 3D is harmful to a child’s visual development or that it causes short- or long-term damage,” Bazan said in a statement. “To the contrary, 3D technology can actually help detect underlying vision problems, which are often the cause of the discomfort some 3D viewers experience.”