In pricing theory, the scarcity principle suggests that the price for a scarce good should rise until an equilibrium is reached between supply and demand. However, this would result in the restricted exclusion of the good only to those who can afford it.
Children aged between three and seven should be limited to half-an-hour to an hour of screen time each day, he said. Those aged seven to 12 should spend just one hour in front of screens. Children aged 12 to 15 should have a maximum of 1.5 hours in front of screens and those aged 16 and over should spend just two hours, he recommends. ''Reducing total daily screen time for children, and delaying the age at which they start, could provide significant advantages for their health and wellbeing,'' he writes.
In the United States, people spend an average of 444 minutes every day looking at screens, or 7.4 hours. That breaks down to 147 minutes spent watching TV, 103 minutes in front of a computer, 151 minutes on a smartphones and 43 minutes with a tablet. As sad as those numbers might be, the U.S. is only the sixth worst nation when it comes to staring at screens. At the top of the list is Indonesia, where people spend an average of 540 minutes, or 9 hours each day, looking at their TVs, computers, smartphones and tablets.