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During Advent and winter, children spend significantly more time indoors: rooms are lit more brightly, decorative fairy lights shine in all colors, and movies or TV series are watched more often on dark, early afternoons. Christmas usually brings new toys – many of them with glowing elements, flashing LEDs, or small displays.
All these light sources affect children’s eyes at a stage when their visual system is not yet fully developed. The lens in particular is exceptionally clear in childhood and allows short-wave, high-energy blue light to pass through much more strongly than the lens in adults. As a result, modern light reaches the retina of young eyes with a completely different intensity and composition.
Especially now, at a time of year when artificial light sources are everywhere, it is worth taking a closer look at how children’s eyes process light—and what biological characteristics play a role.
The lens of the human eye is exceptionally clear at the beginning of life—this is the normal beginning of development. Its structure only changes over the years: it gradually becomes denser and slightly yellowish, absorbing more short-wave light in particular.
This age-related change is well documented: with each decade of life, the lens becomes slightly less permeable to the blue components of visible light. In children and young adults, a higher proportion of short-wave light therefore reaches the retina, while in older eyes it is increasingly absorbed by the lens.
With increasing age, not only does the permeability to short-wave light decrease, but also the overall amount of light reaching the retina. In children, therefore, both more light and a bluer spectrum reach the deeper structures.
Many light sources that children use every day or have in their environment differ significantly from natural daylight. LEDs in indoor spaces, lighting in schools and daycare centers, displays, and light-up toys often emit a spectrum with pronounced blue components. Some of these components are in the range below 450 nm—precisely where children’s lenses are still unable to filter effectively.
In adults, the lens absorbs some of these short-wave components before they reach the retina. In children, however, they reach the eye almost in full. This explains why modern lighting and displays affect young eyes differently from adult eyes, and why children’s eyes should play a key role in the risk assessment of lighting.
This spectral characteristic can play a particularly important role in situations where children sit very close to light sources, such as when playing with brightly lit toys or using tablets and smartphones for long periods of time. This is because the closer the light source, the more pronounced the effect of the unfiltered spectrum.
Incidentally, we already reported in detail in 2024 on the influence of screen light on sleep patterns and the development of myopia in children and adolescents.
Scientists agree on one key point: children’s lenses are almost completely transparent and allow short-wave light to pass through much more easily than adult lenses. This means that a different, bluer spectrum reaches the retina. Authorities and expert committees have concluded that children need special consideration in the context of modern light sources because the eye’s natural filtering effect is still virtually non-existent at this age.
At the same time, current assessments show that the research does not answer all questions—especially with regard to long-term or cumulative effects. Accordingly, several institutions recommend consciously designing lighting environments for children and avoiding blue or white-dominated lighting in sensitive areas.
Three key references illustrate these perspectives:
For years, the French health authority ANSES has been pointing out that children’s lenses allow short-wave light to pass through almost unfiltered, and how problematic this is in view of the high blue light content of modern lighting.
In its 2022 revision of its 2019 assessment, ANSES emphasizes that children need to be given greater consideration due to the high rate of transmission.
The agency recommends avoiding blue-heavy lighting in rooms used by children and ensuring that the spectrum is well designed.
The Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) assesses photobiological safety in the EU context.
In the current statement, children are referred to as a “vulnerable group” because their lenses allow more short-wave light to pass through. At the same time, SCHEER emphasizes that the available studies are insufficient to reliably rule out long-term cumulative effects. For everyday life, the committee therefore recommends cautious and conscious use of intense or close blue light sources.
This 2023 review shows that while there is mechanistic evidence (e.g., oxidative stress caused by high-energy light), there is little long-term data specifically for children.
Many reviews therefore conclude that the greatest uncertainty concerns cumulative effects over many years, especially in combination with modern lighting environments.
For this reason, several studies recommend taking a critical look at blue-dominant and cool white light sources in areas where children spend a lot of time.
The higher spectral transmittance of young eyes is a good reason to take a closer look at the lighting environment of our children. The closer children sit to light sources and the longer they are exposed to them, the stronger the effect of the unfiltered spectrum on the retina and other structures in the eye.
Indoors, it is worth ensuring that you have pleasant basic lighting that is not unnecessarily blue-heavy or cold white (this also applies to adults, by the way). Classic light bulbs have always met this requirement for technical reasons, but there are now also LED lights that take eye health into account and offer more balanced spectra (e.g., this dimmable, flicker-free warm tone LED).
Distance also plays a role: displays, bright toys, or bright desk lamps appear much more intense at close range than from across the room. Wherever possible, it helps to position light sources so that they remain functional but do not shine directly and continuously into the eyes.
Conscious design does not mean sacrifice, but rather refinement: small adjustments—such as warmer light sources, indirect lighting, or breaks from very close light sources—can create a more harmonious interplay of brightness, distance, and duration, especially in rooms where children play, learn, or relax in the evening.
Many parents already consciously design their children’s lighting environment: warm room lighting, breaks during long screen times, and a sensible distance from the device. But even with good design, there are moments when certain light sources cannot be further adjusted—this applies to screens in general, where even software solutions cannot adequately reduce the blue light component, but also to situations where parents have no control over the room lighting.
This is precisely where blue light protection can play a balancing role. It optically alters the incident light and specifically reduces those short-wave components that are particularly pronounced in modern light sources. The result is a gentler, more balanced spectrum.
This makes blue light protection a practical addition wherever lighting conditions cannot be further optimized—an extra tool that parents can use flexibly without changing routines or modifying devices. It expands the possibilities of conscious lighting design rather than replacing them.
Children not only perceive light more consciously, but also biologically differently: their clear eye lenses allow a broader and bluer spectrum to pass through than is the case with adults. Modern light sources amplify this difference because they often contain strong short-wave components and are used at close range.
Conscious design of the lighting environment therefore remains the most important approach. However, where light sources cannot be adjusted as desired, optical filters can be a helpful addition to balance the incoming spectrum—especially in everyday, long-term, or very close lighting situations.
This creates a balanced approach to modern lighting: suitable for everyday use, flexible, and tailored to the specific needs of young eyes.
Image credits:
Cover image:
– Silhouette, Group of Happy Children Playing by Zurijeta via Canva.com
In the article:
– Own graphic (generated with AI support)
– Light-up Shoes by Ben Wehrmann / Getty Images via Canva.com
– Child Enjoying Breakfast by hatice / Pexels via Canva.com
and own image material (c) Innovative Eyewear
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