Why oh why are people giving their under 12s tablets?

Yeah, I assumed it was all councils at the same time. Looks like the target is end of 2026 for all councils.

Absolutely. The iPads are taken home by pupils every night and taken to school every morning.

So many things blocked - YouTube, social media etc.

loads of educational apps including Duolingo. Kids can use them at home to further their learning at school. They have access to each other and the teacher through Microsoft Teams.

I think you make some good points but I think you're off the mark in some places.

Not all screen time is equal. I agree letting kids watch continuous streams of content is bad, it can and does cause an upsurge in mental health issues, it does provide a source of dopamine that can become easily relied upon but...

Screens can also be regulating for SEN kids.

You ask how they regulated before screens. Self regulation isn't a skill you develop simply due to the absence of screens. Before screens were more commonplace a lot of SEN needs just went unnoticed or uncatered for. A lot of needs were unmet. Children were told off, ignored, or labelled naughty because that dysregulated energy was directed elsewhere like self injurious behaviours, harmful behaviours, destructive behaviours or internalised. It's not a case of these children just learned to pick up a book and read to calm down instead or went to pick up a toy.

Screen time does give dopamine, and it's important to understand the role that dopamine plays in emotional regulation. It can take children out of crisis states. It's a very useful tool. It can also be a welcome distraction when the world around you is chaotic, it can be a really helpful communication tool, not just in AAC but providing gestalts for our gestalt language processors who otherwise would have been written off as non-verbal for life. It can help caregivers understand needs from our children with idiosyncratic speech patterns.

In short, in moderation, it's not the devils work, and it should be moderated, but with children which it is an essential means of communication and distraction a bit of grace wouldn't go amiss.

It's easy to judge SEN kids, because the world holds them to neurotypical standards but ultimately that's unfair and unrealistic.

Studies are emerging all the time regarding the harmful effects -
mental health / focus and concentration skills / social functioning / body image distress etc etc

huge resistance from many who don’t wish to hear this, and then there is of course all the screen addicted parents who can’t see the problem, and are increasingly tired and unable to effectively problem solve and see alternatives beyond the devices …

the huge surge of SEN kids reliant on devices - the narrative of they need them to regulate

how did people regulate before devices ?
they developed a more varied tool box as opposed to being soothed / distracted / dopamine dripped from the device - which then in turn increases problems with withdrawal / sleep function / connection from real world etc etc

OP you are spot on - 👍

Get your parental controls set up properly.
If its android use Family Link.
Ask questions if its a Amazon Fire.

I was having a pub lunch with my sister on Saturday. On the next table was a family of grandparents, parents, and a boy of about 10. Apart from when he was eating, he spent the ENTIRE time with his head bowed, staring at the ipad on his lap, playing a game.
I'm pretty "you do you bo", but I thought it was actually really fucking sad.

Clearly my brain isn't working this morning because it took me an embarrassingly long time reading the comments to realise you weren't talking about medication.

But even my sons nursery implemented tablet use, they did a "programming" section with those little robot floor tortoises.

My son did get a tablet but we use it for things like reading eggs, edurino and other apps to help him catch up at school after it became obvious he was very far behind due to his disability. It's helping to bridge the gap between what he knows and what he needs to know to catch up with his peers and develop skills like holding a pen and writing in order.

Sorry, I got it wrong. I thought all councils were doing it at the same time. It looks like the plan is by end of 2026 to give all P6+ students an iPad.

Our kids had to have iPads for school from Y5 (9/10yo) so it has been part of his life since then.

Its fine in moderation, its those who give their babies/toddlers phones while in the pram when they could be looking around that are the issue. Theres a six year old who gets in a pram at my sons school (he can walk fine!), mum hands him his phone immediately the second hes out of school. Thats an issue.

They can. My son gets up at 6, walks the dog, walks to school and spends half an hour on a screen. Then he gets picked up from school at 3, either has a sports class for an hour or 2 hours at the park running round, home at 5, half an hour doing homework on seesaw and sumdog. That's an hour of screentime and it's 5.30pm. he reads his reading book, plays with his sister and eats dinner then after dinner it's 6.30 he's allowed an hour of whatever he wants so sometimes that'll be a bit of gaming or a gymnastics or yoga video they follow from YouTube, lately they've been learning dance moves. Then at 7.30 screens go off, it's board games, card games,lego and reading and bath and then in bed 9.30ish. 3 hours of screentime (although being honest most days it's less than 2 hours because his switch has a 2 hour alarm and it rarely goes off but he can do 3 hours and still fit everything else in)homework, extensive exercise and other activities.
He finds transitions between activities hard and a quick brain break on a screen can take him out of 1 activity then he transitions to the next one.

It amazes me that people just dont want to listen or consider the evidence from those of us who work with a range of children and see the general pattern of impact on brain functioning, social skills, relationships, parenting.

Interesting! Not one single person DH or I knew had a bedroom TV in the 80s/90s! Maybe dependent on area/wealth/social circle etc. We certainly couldn’t have afforded three TVs for the bedrooms plus a living room TV in the early 90s! I was 15 before I had a bedroom TV, DH didn’t have one until he moved out of his Dad’s house at 19. TV for both of us and at any friends houses we went to was very communal and “background” not sitting staring at it like a zombie the way kids do with tablets/phones. Parents don’t want to hear the impact though because plugging a child into a screen is far less effort than entertaining them ourselves or encouraging them to self entertain.

Yes there'll be uproar in years to come about 'why didnt anyone tell us', they'll be blaming manufacturers for not putting warnings on or governments for not stepping in.

Can you outline a day of your parenting please and we can compare laziness?

People are very defensive about it because its true that what you use screens for and how long you use them for makes a big difference. It takes it from useful, enjoyable tool to harmful.

lots of parents do hugely struggle to regulate screen time though. Lots of parents are addicted to thier own phones.

Watching a tv show with a plot that lasts for an age appropriate attention span, is completely different than watching tik toks that your parents are 'monitoring' Tik toks are faster and give more dopamine hits as you scroll quickly through it. Lots of social media is designed to be addictive with its notifications, and likes etc.

Im halfway through anxious generation which us very interesting about social media and the big increase in anxiety in teens.

TV wasn't communal activity. It was sitting quietly watching a screen. It was considered rude to talk over it.

We got them each a tablet about ten years ago when they were 10 and 6. Very locked down with just a games on it.

I am 50 and was always brought up to embrace not shy away from new technology with various games machines and computers from 1979 onwards and didn't think anything of it. There were always dire warnings about kids watching TV when I was growing up. I spend hours and hours watching TV and playing games and also plenty of time being active. DDs were the same and probably even more active than I was, so we never had to limit screen time as it was self-limiting. After a while they would always prefer going outside to run around!

I'd probably be more limiting with phones these days or let them have them a little later than Y6, but when DD2 was in Y6/7 it was 2020/21 and gaming and phones was for a period the only way they could stay in contact with friends.

They have both turned out well, as did I. Advice I would give to new parents is that a lot of stuff is innate and if you are providing love, consistency and stability then don't dance on the head of a pin about screen time or whether they ate five portions of veg today.

If society decides that screens are so bad for children then there needs to be a massive shift away from tech in schools, particularly for homework. I'd be in favour of this as IMO it allows teachers to set too much homework anyway and not be responsible for marking it.

Just look at the positives at least you no need to have 32 volumes of the encyclopedia Britannica, taking up space.

Laziness. It's as simple as that. People can use all the justifications they like