To think we've made a mistake with DS big present?

[lynzmb]

We got DS6 an Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet for Christmas to replace an ancient iPad. I'm pretty tech savvy but I have really struggled to get certain apps on the kids profile - YouTube Kids seems extremely difficult to add, research talks about side loading etc which just seems like an almighty faff. I'm worried we keep running into problems like this, DS will lose interest and it was v expensive.

I'm wondering if we return it and look at another android tablet instead. Seen a few people suggesting Samsung with Family Link app for parental controls.

I'm feeling stupid already for not realising the limitations around Amazon tablets so please be kind! Or is there a simple solution I'm missing?

@nationalsausagefund agree not all parents have an iPad /device

But must have a smart phone so kids been doing it on that

Of course though, all children are different. My 11 year old uses her tablet for DuoLingo, watching cooking videos, using the Kindle app and occasionally watching a film. I’ve just checked her screen time and she averages an hour a day.
She couldn’t give a shit about peer pressure.

This. One of my dc really did skip between a screen and books, toys etc. The other would literally wet himself because he didn’t want to move from the screen.

They are all designed to be addictive. I struggle to switch my own screens off a lot of the time. We know how damaging screen addiction is.

All children are different and parents are just trying to do the right thing. I get it. But with the wisdom of hindsight (and a lot of research that’s available to all!) I’m pretty anti screen.

Loved CBeebies/CBBC and had very few limits on that (because my children enjoyed it but also did lots of other things and tbh CBeebies is bloody brilliant).

No-one is immune from using screens as a babysitter sometimes and that’s ok. But some screens are infinitely better than others (half an hour of Bluey/horrible histories while I’m making supper vs YouTube videos of children unwrapping kinder eggs etc)

Kids YouTube is not safe for kids so don't let them have that anyway. Lots of stories of people letting their kids watch stuff and things completely inappropriate get through the filters. Sone content creators do that deliberately, make cartoons that suddenly develop adult themes or language

It’s proved to mess with brain development. We reluctantly gave in to a phone in year 6 before then it was tv only.

@User74893677 agree doesn't need to be an iPad /device

Some parents use laptops for them

As my previous reply most parents have a smart phone so can do via that

Not saying kids need their own device

Just that it can help having a family one /laptop /parents phone so something they can do maths and spelling on

As another poster said - sorry can't quote as on app - but they decided to do paper and pen instead

I understand. But (for example) I allow all food in moderation for my children but they’re not allowed some things at home - fizzy drinks and sweets with lots of colours. They can have them at parties, sometimes a lemonade at a cafe etc, they’re not banned. But we don’t have them at home as a regular thing.

Tech is here and part of life. But YouTube is not (at the moment) at home. If they actually need to watch something for school or something specific they’re interested in, then I unblock the WiFi ban while they watch. But from experience, YouTube is the blue toxic waste sweetie equivalent of tech for my children.

TV is fine. They make pretty good choices and we like watching things together. Ditto switch games which we play together and they also play with friends.

@IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos

t's the world we live in these days. Technology is everywhere. They use it at school. It's only going to keep developing.

Teach kids how to use it safely, rather than restricting them from it out of fear.

Exactly this

As parents we teach kids and then also limit. So homework. 5/10 mins free time on it

Then turn off and play /colour /read etx

Too many parents are afraid to say no /set boundaries

Thing is, we also had (until recently) a dog who was a very active breed and needed to be out a couple of times a day. So we have always been outside. I'm an avid reader so that's always encouraged. DH loves cars and building and basically anything engineering based so that's always been encouraged. We love gardening so we are out there every few days or so. We love cooking so we do cook from scratch most days (not every day because we are human) and she helps often enough that the other day she stood on her stool, looked at what ingredients I had out and said "yay meatballs". Our lifestyle means that screens are only ever a small part of it.

So I can believe that other parents have kids that can switch off screens easily. Because other people must also have similar lifestyles and interests? We aren't the only people who prefer outside to inside or like to cook.

I love my iPhone and find it very hard to go a single day without it. It is addictive and takes away time that I could spend doing more useful stuff and developing social skills.

You can decide when you want your child to have that tech. In Australia, they are considering a law to make that age 16 to protect child development.

Is age 6 or even age 2 the time you want to introduce it?

Haven’t RTFT. I don’t have children. However I often see parents giving children the parents own phone to watch things on. If the parent keeps a child tablet won’t this mean that they have better controls with less chance of the child seeing adult content. In these cases these young children are looking at a screen anyway.

That's all we use the tablet for, is TV/films and educational games. Everything else is locked down or she's just not told about it /we don't put it on there.

It will teach her that screens are a useful way of learning or good for a bit of downtime, without her falling down the rabbit hole of YouTube or tiktok (yet, I see it coming as a teenager but that's a different time).

While I agree that there is useful stuff on there, children can watch whatever they want. It's not controlled in the same way as tv and relies on people reporting unsuitable things that slip through. People can upload whatever they want, algorithms and moderators work to remove the stuff. I think the backlash against all the 'prank' family stuff on there is a good example of this, if you saw some of this stuff done by parents you knew you would rightly be concerned for their children.

You also have to hope that the information is accurate. I could make a really informative video deep dive into the Russian Revolution, doesn't mean any of it is correct.

Side loading isn’t a major barrier (I do it to get apps on my Google TV) but I can see it being an issue for a kids tablet! I’d return and get a standard Android tablet or an iPad as before.

I agree amazon tablets are shocking. My boys have had lenovos for over a year and still going strong.

We’ve had a few Amazon Fire tablets and can confirm they were rubbish. We only use tablets for the library app so kids can listen to the audiobooks on journeys and a few maths apps. But they still couldn’t cope why that and broke really easily. Replaced them with Fires again as they seemed so much cheaper than iPads and same story.

Got some cheap old model IPads from Amazon Renewed a few years ago and so much better!

I agree with others than 6 is such a young age for an ipad. We have an ipad but is the family ipad, my DD uses it sometimes but sporadically, but having one that she could call her ipad would be problematic.

I also don't understand kids watching YouTube kids, surely everyone has to agree that even if you can find interesting videos on the platform, this is very addictive and one video leads to another and then another and then another, difficult to stop, why would anyone want their kids to get addicted to Youtube? It is sad to watch. I was on the train the other day and one kid sitting in the seat in front of me was watching random videos during the whole journey. At least watching a film they have to follow an argument

I'm 🤯🤯 that children as young as 5/6 are brought their own tablets. Like why

DD was a paediatric HCP, she says screens are like crack for kids, starting with coco melon for toddlers. Brain fry stuff.

My nephew is 2 and I was surprised to see that they put youtube videos on the TV for him. He likes something called Vlad and Nikki which is a horrible display of excess wealth. Mine watched TV at that age only, and Cbeebies. He doesn’t watch anything educational. He doesn’t watch to excess but they get him out of the house to avoid him asking for it.

Some have them much younger

Mine have tablets. They enjoy them. They have set amounts of screen time. 1 hour per day.
My son in particular has came leaps and bounds with super simple learning videos on YouTube, we sing the songs together. Half my daughters school work is done via Tablet and laptop and that is primary school.

Yes, one particular ‘influencer’ on Instagram has a child who has just turned one. Poor kid has few toys but is always dumped in front of a screen. Mum is constantly saying how his favourite movie is ‘Sing’ - you couldn’t make it up.

There was a recall on the product so the elves collected it and left the new one?
The elves left a note explaining — print off a few elf pictures and add the note.

OK - but when I was a kid I didn't only read text books, there were comics too.

My kids do watch lots of other things too, not denying that, but I think that the good outweighs the bad easily (and by bad, I mean watching people playing splatoon or whatever, not actual bad stuff)

I get reports of what they're watching, I hear them around me, I am aware of what they're doing, and tell them to switch to something else if it's innapropriate.