Every third school going child exercises less than an hour per week, as per a survey. Most of them treat exercising as a ‘job-to-do’ meant for the overweight kids while one in eight exercises for an hour a day.
 
It was also discovered that more than half of the children between 8-15 years of age spend an hour or more chatting to friends and talking over the phone or browsing social networking sites like Facebook everyday.
 
One third of youngsters are obese and the number will rise and reach two-thirds by 2050. A warning was issued saying that today’s children are at a higher risk of dying early than their parents.
 
A charity which conducted a survey cruised through 1,029 pupils and found that 78 percent did not know how much is the recommended daily exercise and 30 percent was not bothered to do it.
 
Victoria Taylor, who is a dietician, said that one should get into good habits early in life. She said, 'You can start the day by walking to school, be active at playtime and then play outside when you get home, rather than sitting in front of the television or computer.'
 
The charity has launched an Ultimate Dodgeball challenge in schools as part of its Food4Thought campaign. Athlete Sally Gunnell, who won an Olympic Gold medal in the 400m hurdles in 1992, is supporting the challenge.