KIDS have been taken into care due to their parents’ telly addiction, the Sun on Sunday can reveal.

       They cannot tear themselves from the gogglebox.

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       An obsession with TV or the internet was a factor in three custody cases in Wigan and six in Somerset Credit: Getty

       A boy of four was removed from his parents in Staffordshire because their viewing habits meant they spent too little time caring for the child.

       An obsession with TV or the internet was a factor in three custody cases in Wigan, Lancs, and six in Somerset, plus others in Portsmouth, Hants, and Wakefield, West Yorks.

       Stockport Council said it took a boy of 16 and a girl of 14 into care due to the children’s own screen addiction.

       The worrying cases emerged in a Freedom of Information survey.

       We asked every council in England about the first 20 care cases in 2021 and the issues that social workers considered.

       Anastasia De Waal, director of children’s charity I Can Be, said: “Cases where social workers consider screen time to be contributing to a harmful environment are likely to link to a much broader picture of home-life dysfunction.”

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       But Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said: “Taking children into care because of the parents’ viewing habits is an illegitimate reason for breaking up a family.”

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       Director of children's charity I Can Be, Anastasia De Waal, says screen time addiction can lead to 'home-life dysfunction'

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