‘Play outside’: Belgium tells kids to leave TV

BRUSSELS: No television and no tablets. It sounds like a punishment, but across Belgium it was the recipe for the nationwide children´s “play outside” day. Every year, for an afternoon, Belgian television networks stop broadcasting children´s shows to encourage kids to go outdoors.

And on Wednesday, hundreds of venues across the country hosted events to tie in. “That´s what´s happening here too: no television this Wednesday afternoon, just playing outside with other kids and having a great time,” Pascal Smet, minister of the Brussels region for mobility and public works, said.