Recently at the 13th World Congress on Cancers of the Skin it has been recommended not only to use a sunscreen on your children when they are outside but also clothing to decrease their risk of malignant melanoma in the future. Numerous studies show that the more sun exposure our children have the higher the number of melanocytic and atypical nevi they will get. This then increases the risk of melanoma in the future.

Many people are using sun screens on their children these days and think they are protecting their children from the sun and its risks of sun-induced cancers. The problem with this is that sun screens are poor protection as they require very large quantities of the product to give you the true protection listed on the bottle such as the newer spf 70's and even now 100. In order to get the true spf listed on the tube you would need to use as much as the entire bottle in a single use and no-one I know is doing this.

The use of sun screens has given many parents the false sense of security. The best ways to avoid the long term risk of skin cancer especially malignant melanoma is to avoid being outside in the direct sunlight between the hours of 11 am to 3 pm, covering as much of your child's skin as possible with clothing, having them wear a hat with a brim that goes all the way around and applying sun screen to exposed skin a minimum of every 2 hours. These same rules can be applied to adults as well.