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

[Bigpinksweater]

The evidence regarding the effects of tablets on developing brains is damning. They are absolutely not necessary and barely existed 15 years ago. We are seeing huge rises in behavioural and developmental issues while steadfastly ignoring the fact screen time and in particular tablets can contribute to virtually all of them.

Why oh why are people still handing their toddlers and primary school children tablets?

I was ridiculously and naively against screen time when I was a new parent. Then I had an autistic child and discovered how screens can be a valuable tool.

people demonize screens for children, but it is all about how you use them. If parents simply hand over tablets and don’t supervise, I would be concerned. I am incredibly happy we had them in our arsenal.

some examples:
They help some children with regulation. They allowed us to bring our child into social situations and provide respite and relief. Eventually she was able to lose the crutch and get through things like a meal in a restaurant without a tablet and headphones. Without the ability to have small bits of practice interspersed with rest, it would have taken so much longer to get her there.

she also had handwriting fatigue and needed to be able to do her work on computers in order to access the curriculum at her academic level. We had her take a typing course so that she could touch type from a very young age.

We have them for when travelling or when camping.

We do big journeys (8 hours+) about 3/4 times a year and when camping they can wake up early so rather then wake the campsite at 6.30am they get a tablet for 30mins or so til it's a more acceptable time to make a bit of noise.

DS1 uses them in his school class as well though.

Where are the respected studies? Please be specific

YouTube is the work of the fucking devil though. It’s fine if you are using it for a particular purpose eg how to crochet, how to draw a lion etc. But we banned the mindless watching of videos in the house. Ninjakids. JJ and Mikey etc. Absolute brain rotting shite.

I am grateful this wasn’t so much a thing when my kids were young. They are 19 and 21 now and got tablets aged 15.

My 19y old says she has noticed her concentration and focus diminish since she started getting into TikTok aged 17/18. She finds it addictive. The constant scrolling and stimulation. Never mind the emotional content of social media. It has def affected her ability to study and she is a bright girl doing STEM at uni.

I can’t guess what it might be doing to developing younger brains. Hopefully it will all be fine, but I think until we have definitive evidence, surely some caution is wise.

But you don't need to give kids access to everything. If you don't understand tech enough or cannot be bothered to supervise then fair enough. But a phonics game, lego game or ten minutes on times tables rockstars isn't the same as scrolling tik tok or youtube.

Why oh why is it any of your business

But there are only 48 hrs in those 2 days 😢

It is like other conspiracy theorists. The jury is out at the moment. There is not enough evidence available to draw conclusions. I am sure that social media can cause jealousy and unhappiness amongst some people bur the actual technology tools themselves have not yet been shown to harm children.

Lol, they used to say the same thing about telly and everyone turned out alright.

What? When

Not really

Sorry I’m not sure what this means

I’m cracking up here - I thought you meant tablets like paracetamol! 😂

I agree - it’s shocking to see mums on the phone while their toddlers are swiping instead of looking at an age appropriate book

I think generally speaking, and there will always be caveats to this, that often the reasons parents say they use tablets or screens of some sort is for ND reasons, are the very children that are going to be more disadvantaged by types of usage.
As other posters say, by the nature of the way the scrolling words, the feedback loops, the repetition, over stimulation is counter productive to many children's needs.

The joys of the Barnett formula.

Took a looooong time to fully establish evidence of the dangers of smoking.

Utter alarmist nonsense.
what are you recommending?we eschew all tech and create a sepia tone olde world childhood. All the middle class anxious parents bragging to other hand wringing parents about how they have banned iPad and tablets.
Appropriate apps and educational platforms are accessible and promote learning and the children brain plasticity will absorb it all

"There is no such thing as a society"

Rolled out P6 onwards isn't it?

This shows how teachers are so behind the times. We are all using AI at work and encourage to do so. I'm actively teaching my kids how to use Gen AI productively. It really shows when team members can't prompt properly. Gen AI is Google of the late 90s. We learn to google search by using key words. Have you noticed that isn't effective anymore? I have noticed now if switch to prompting the way you use LLM, I get much better results from many of the internal websites we used that are AI enabled.

Your kid's secondary school teachers sound like luddites.

I think that is a sweeping generalisation OP. Respectfully, families use them in different ways. My children have had them from approximately age 7. Not every day but to watch movies on long journeys or to play games, FaceTime relatives who live far away, etc. All supervised and managed from my phone. Whether we like it or not, we need to teach children how to use technology responsibly before they are 'let loose' as teenagers. I have had some battles with one of my children in particular about usage but am holding my boundaries firm which isn't easy but important.

Gosh I agree so much with your comment.
Both DC loved these when they were in the pushchair:
https://toppsta.com/books/series/5795/buggy-buddies
DD1 called them buddy buddies and DD2 buggy buggies.
We had 4 or 5 attached and they would 'read' them but we spent most of the time chatting about what we could see around.
I also didn't walk along staring at my phone either and it's not that long ago.

Her birthday present was something she could only use for homework AND it was taken away again for something someone else did?!

Where? I'm in Scotland and haven't heard this. They can jolly well keep it