To think current concerns over screen time is bordering hysteria

It's not just either or.

I grew up in 80s London and we roller skated, went to friends' houses, cinema etc. And my parents were very strict. So it was all quite controlled, e.g. don't skate far from the house.

Partner grew up in 80s/90s North, and they would play football, street hockey, explore fields, build makeshift tents, etc. Totally accept that you can't do this in cities.

Neither of us had a screen, and nor did my son when he was born in the late 90s. I was a single parent (son isn't my partner's) and I took him to the park, read, played interactive games etc. And I was penniless.

ADHD absolutely predates screens and diagnosis can be tricky to get. That said ADHD is hardly helped in the cases of children who have been raised with vast screen/phone time. While its diagnosis is behavioural there will be some false positives and some cases where behaviours have been exacerbated thanks to the influence of screens, poor diet, poor sleep routines etc all working together to produce children with lower literacy, lower emotional regulation and lower concentration.

My kids got little screen time until older and I don’t regret that at all. They did cook with me and shop with me and put washing on with me. It’s not hysterical to look at the decrease in skills shown be early years and to draw the conclusion that screens have a causal relationship to these problems

Depends on what the screen is being used for, and where it is being used too. Not all screen time is created equally etc.
My kids have 'tablets' but we're very specific about what they can and can't do on there, and also when they can and can't use them. So at home after school whilst dad cooks dinner and I handle an important work call? Fine. In a restaurant with wider family members who've come to see you? NO.
Practicing numbers/creating something on an app/reading a story? Fine. Watching shitty youtube videos of unboxing tat, with kids with bizarre fake voices? NO.

It's the same with tv - as someone who worked in childcare for a long time, most stuff on cbeebies is fine. Cbeebies, and childrens BBC, has a pretty high bar for what is shown on their channels, so it's got to be educational etc (there are a number of different checklists and hoops it's got to go through). Also old movies, and even old tv shows if you can find them, are much better for kids to watch. Whereas hours on end of cocomelon or something not age appropriate is obviously not fine!

I should also add that because of these 'rules' in our house, my kids are fairly good about screens. They're not obsessed and we also don't get that crash after watching tv that puts their nervous system on edge!

Tbf this happens in my street to this day - I think because I live in quite a poor area, so I think this is a phenomenon that depends where you live. It’s also a cul de sac which helps - I’ve never called SS cos parents cos never seen any reason to, parents are within shouting distance, although not present in the street (row of terraces so not really any different to kids being in a garden in terms of distance) and the kids all genuinely look out for each other. It’s never concerned me. When people comment on it they generally say - ooh that’s nice to see. It really is a bit 1960s.

True, but it's my job, my whole career is on computers, so I can't really stop now. I would love to potter in the garden, walk the dog, and climb mountains but it just doesn't pay the bills. Roll on retirement!

DC has always needed a lot of screen restrictions and we let her have a fraction of the screen time of some of her friends, but she is not a toddler anymore.

Kids just keep growing up, so we need to adapt restrictions to make them appropriate for their age. Sometimes we get the balance wrong, like all parents. Then we have to wind things back and try again.

DC can't not use screens - she has homework on apps and Google classroom, she has long distance friends/relatives, she loves to game and watch shite telly like all teens, she also enjoys creative tech like programming, CAD, video editing etc.

There needs to be a happy balance - learning valuable skills is good, braindead staring is bad.

She has time limits, downtime overnight, and content limits (no social media or you tube). Plus we all stick to firm house rules of no screens at the table etc. DH and I also have time limits/downtime/alarms on our phones to stop excessive use, because we know we also have problems with self control!

At some point she will be old enough that we will have to let her manage her own screen time.... but not yet 😬

OP didnt mention the children supervising a toddler at all, you've made that up

And mum smoking a fag, well so what. And what OP actually said was 'cooking or sitting around smoking a fag' it wouldnt raise any concern.

Well yes, mums in those days used to sit around and chat while the kids played, theres nothing wrong with that

Its a shame that communities of children dont play together anymore and mums support each other.

Its a shame that awful tragedies lead to the disabling of children's play and children's experiences. We are the poorer for it.

I wouldn’t say it causes ADHD but it definitely doesn’t help and funny how there’s so much more ADHD now we have so much screen access…

I really notice it in Florida on holiday as we are around a lot of small children and eating out daily. It’s been such a noticeable change over last 5 years or so compared to pre covid. We saw a family with 2 girls colouring in a restaurant once in whole holiday, when mine was younger children in restaurant would be colouring the menu with crayons (every chain gave them), buttering bread and saying they’d like apple juice to server. Now they are just out of it like a little zombie, often parent putting food in mouth. There’s so much to see in the parks bright colours, music yet parents have these attachments on buggies to hold the tablet or phone a few inches from their face.
It’s totally different use of tech compared to only a few years ago and not comparable at all to tv.

There's going to be a huge divide, I think. There are circles and schools in which being screen-free is very much the norm.

Which isn't what the OP said, she said in the 90s toddlers would out on the streets with 9 year olds supervising while Mum smoked a fag and only now would that seem bad and result in a call to social services.

Which isn't true. I was a child in the 80s and even then toddlers with primary school kids supervising unless in the families garden or directly outside the house where Mum could see them would be a red flag that would draw comment and concern.

And I was a teenager in the 90s, James Bulger was murdered by children in 1993 which I vividly remember led to an obvious huge change in parents worrying about their children even playing outside their own front gate with other kids of a similar age or even slightly older.

So the idea of 3 year olds supervised by 9 year olds randomly roaming in the streets and that being seen as completely fine by observers, I'm not buying that.

I think it's a moral panic - with some underlying justified concern caught up in it.

I was 80s child - I was put in front of TV sometimes and grew up fine.

DC had limited screens and tried to be out and about with them when younger as much as possible. However cooking - they'd be in front of TV or at table colouring or playing. When I was ill - kept getting chest infections - and DH couldn't be off TV was great otherwise couldn't have cope. They watched number jack and later horrible histories and on computers did coding games and maths games.

It's moderation and what they are doing and yes I do think that gets missed or simplied as all screens are bad.

There are increasingly issues with children language s and speach - and behavior and school readiness probably easier to blame screens than other contributing factors.

Well in the 70s /80s we got turfed out in the street for 10 hours a day. I think people would call ss for that now.

Matches my anecdotal experience. Modern classrooms are closer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest than what I understood a classroom to be like.

Yes and if you were off sick from school you'd have to watch the Sullivans if you were well enough to go downstairs

Otherwise it was colouring in and story books.

I was a single parent with 6 waaay before screens, we had no electric as we were living in a cave but we managed okay and the kids are well adjusting full functioning adults.
Well, not a cave exactly but it was pretty crowded, but as a larger family there was always a play mate or two.
The Madness song 'Our House' could have been written for my family.😆

My kids born in the 90s watched Tweenies or Teletubbies. So half an hour a day.
When I was a child there was no TV until 5pm (yes I am very old) and then it was Blue Peter or nothing.

These threads always run the same way. Those of us who have professional experience in the change in children's presentation, needs and abilities over the past 30 decades say the same thing.

People just dont or wont believe it.

I agree, people are overestimating how long tablets - which I do think are the main problem in this conversation, particularly being used by very young children - have been around. First iPad was released in 2010 and it took a little while for them to be widely adopted. So we’re talking the last 15 years for tablet use to have become normalised. I think it’s a really complex issue but it’s not like 2010 was an era where the pressures of full time work etc were particularly different from today.

Little kids + tablets does seem to be a genuine issue so I don’t think it’s scaremongering to point that’s out. People whose kids are now older teens or young adults who have gone to good unis and got good jobs etc won’t have had tablets before they were two, cos they didn’t exist. So that’s not quite the same.

I doubt if your three adult DC were minded by an iPad as toddlers. It's not just what they watch but how young and how long.

I have DC in their 20s.
They were both gamers but didn't have hand held devices until they were about ten. The only screen they had as toddlers was the odd episode of Teletubbies on tv. Around 7/8 they had computer games and a bit later games consoles. They got phones at 11 but they were brick Nokias.
DH worked all his life in tech and we were early adopters of home computers but there was nothing like the devices that people use now.

Screens for young children are robot childminders. They are doing nothing for developing brains, teach them very little and limit attention spans.

The worst thing was being half way out of the door to play with your mates and being told “take your little sister with you!”

Anecdotal, but my friend is a special needs coordinator in an academy trust in a difficult catchment area in Manchester. The number of children with extreme additional needs has skyrocketed, increasing year on year since COVID - around half the children in the class need additional support, and several are unmanageable in a normal classroom each September. Pre 2020 it was more like 20% needing additional support and fewer than 1 per class who were not going to cope in mainstream school.
Most 4 year olds don't yet have specific diagnoses re ADHD/Autism so it's not an issue of over/under diagnoses - something has caused this change. The Sep 2025 entries were born after Sep 2020 so should be largely unaffected by lockdowns in terms of social skills?

Giving a 2 yr old a tablet is the height of lazy parenting.

This.

There are numerous testimonies from people working in these fields that will tell people what they don't want to hear.

It isn't covid, it isn't 'increased awareness of SEN'.

It's complex yes, but screens are a huge. huge part of it.

Anyone suggesting otherwise or comparing it to watching telly in the 80s or having a nintendo in the 90s are not understanding how incomparable the screens today are in comparison to the screens of most of our childhoods.

I suppose it depends what they are doing on the screens. My 2 used to play Timetable Rockstars and Duolingo on a smartphone when they were younger. Game like Minecraft use Problem Solving, in-game coding, maths to figure out coordinate, ratios, basic physics (gravity, flow, mechanics)
Circuits (redstone = electrical logic)
Design thinking & engineering.

Geography, History & Creativity
In Creative mode, players can:
Rebuild real cities
Design historical landmarks
Create entire worlds
Great for spatial awareness, research, and imagination.

Communication & Teamwork
Multiplayer teaches:
Cooperation
Planning together
Problem-solving as a team

Minecraft: Education Edition
There’s even a school version with:
Coding lessons
Science labs
History worlds
Classroom tools
Lots of UK schools use it for structured learning.

This is correct, it just WAS normal back then. I grew up in the 80s and aged about 6 or 7, would go out for ages on my bike on my own or with the neighbourhood kids. It just wasn't a big thing for parents to worry about how their kids were entertaining themselves - we were expected to go and play with toys or climb trees or make dens or whatever and not bother them. That was one of the GOOD things about growing up back then! You could get away with doing loads without your parents ever knowing!