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Join the debate » Only one in 40 children is taking enough exercise to stay healthy, research reveals today.

The tiny proportion of 11-yearolds meeting international guidelines for one hour of moderate exercise every day means that millions of less active children could be storing up health problems for the future.

And the outlook for older children could be worse because activity levels decline sharply as they go through their teenage years.

Researchers described the findings as 'sobering'.

The average boy in the study, carried out at the universities of Bath and Bristol, spent just 25 minutes a day exercising. The typical girl spent only 16 minutes.

International guidelines recommend at least an hour a day of moderate activity - such as running, cycling or dancing - for children aged five to 18.

These levels are considered the optimum for staving off obesity, diabetes and heart disease in later life.

But, confirming the existence of a 'couch potato' generation, only 5 per cent of boys and 0.4 per cent of girls of the 5,500-plus children in the study were achieving those levels.

The children were given a monitor, called an accelerometers, to wear for seven consecutive days which recorded minute-by-minute the intensity and frequency of physical activity.

Their exercise levels showed them to be twice as active as adults.

But that was still not enough.

Both boys and girls spent most of their day in light intensity activities.

Only 22 per cent of girls spent at least five minutes a day enjoying moderate to vigorous activity and 40 per cent of boys.

Professor Chris Riddoch, of Bath University, said only sustained activity was likely to promote fitness.

These children are doing an awful lot of light intensity exercise, such as walking.

"They are on the move all the time. But it is that more intense stuff that stretches them a bit that they are not getting.

"It is alarming when you consider these children are at an age when they are going to be at their most active in their whole lives. As they get older the amount of physical exercise they do will get less."

Professor Riddoch added: "We are getting the energy balance wrong because of the way the environment is these days - using a lift instead of stairs, for instance."

Junk food and the use of the TV as an 'electronic babysitter' are blamed for growing obesity levels.Concerns have also been raised about levels of competitive sport in schools while many playing fields have been sold off.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: "At the moment we have the aspiration of two hours of physical activity in schools per week, which is laughable.

"Gordon Brown has said he would like to see five hours a week, which is fine.

"Children need one hour per day of physical activity which will make them sweat.

"There's no point in them wandering down to the local shop to buy a fizzy drink, that's not what we mean."

The children who took part in the research, which will be published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, were part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which has tracked the health of more than 14,000 children since birth.

Children - food and play - what do we do?

12 years ago fewer than 10 per cent of primary schoolchildren were classified as obese. That has jumped to 16.9 per cent of boys and 16.8 per cent of girls, aged between two and 10, a fifty per cent increase. Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, says “if the trend continues, by mid-century we'd be getting close to half of all children classified as obese. It is clearly important that we act .” No sooner had he got the words out than we had wall to wall nutritionists and child experts telling us how to sort it. In my opinion their advice, which ranges from suggesting we all dine on raw veg to taking fat children into care, is as much use as a chocolate fireguard. A fat child will have a hard time but not nearly as hard as immersion in the care system would be. Most of the experts are gunning for parents.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, thinks “education for parents is top priority.' But education without proper facilities will be a waste of time. Children are becoming obese for two main reasons, the prevalence of gadgets you play with sitting down and parents’ reluctance to let their children out of their sight. Why worry that they’re being gunned down like Rhys or stabbed like Damilola when you can shut them in the bedroom with a Play Station and a giant packet of crisps. And if you let them out in the street to play hopscotch they’ll be pounced on by litter wardens as soon as they chalk the grid. Not my imagination, that has actually happened. And a-ride to a leisure centre which charges for entrance is simply beyond many budgets.

Anita Bean … don’t you just love that name… says parents should revert to feeding methods of the past: ' The old-fashioned rule of just eating what was put in front of you seems to have waned. Children shouldn't get into the habit of rejecting food, which gives them power and control.' I’m afraid any parent who tried a little force feeding or the old method of serving up a rejected meal again and again until eaten would soon have Social Services round, alerted by Childline. Children know their rights. Experts have taught them. Again and again parents tell me they are afraid of making a stand over discipline of any kind for fear of state intervention.

It was Society which sold off the playing fields, built sink estates, demoralised parents and teachers and created the problem. Its society who can and must change it, not parents alone. I suspect most parents know how to look after their children or did before their confidence was eroded. But they are hampered by suspicion of authority, increasing economic worries and fear of crime. So they opt for peace. When children bored by inactivity whine and winge it’s easy to give them 50p for crisps to shut them up. OK, it’s also wrong but when you’re bowed down with worry about the mortgage or getting to work on time 'wrong' can seem the easiest way out.

So what should we do? Continue to provide healthy school meals by all means and offer information on nutrition but, more important, make sure every child has a safe place in which to let off steam, preferably one with trees to climb or scope for hidey. If open play areas are impossible no council should boast of its leisure facilities unless the majority of those facilities are free and easily accessible. Rescue teachers from red tape and health and safety flummery so that out of school games become possible once more. Fine councils which sell off playing fields. Cut back the Olympic budget and instead build volleyball and skateboard parks. And acknowledge that this present problem has been a long time in the making and won’t go away overnight. When I was an independent councillor thirty years ago I appealed for more play areas. “I suppose you’d like a play area on every street corner” said the head of the Finance Committee with what he hoped was withering sarcasm. “Yes, please” I said. I haven’t changed my mind.
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