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?

DS is nearly 2 and he does not have a phone or tablet, the only time he views a tablet is towards the end of the 1 day a week his grandparents have him he'll have half hour or so of nursery rhymes on one which they sing and do actions with him.
But the amount of times people comment when we're out and he either has a small magnetic drawing board, his busy book or reading books about how lovely it is to see and how unusual it is is crazy!
I took him to the barbers a few weeks ago and forgot his usual occupying tools, he happily played with the clips on a lunchbox, and a bag clip, no fussing nothing, it's laziness from parents! There's absolutely no excuse for it!

My children don't have their own tablet but they do have access to an ipad and and Android tablet for school work.

I’m sure it’s not always, but why buy them the tablet in the first place? Surely anyone would rather their child have this down time doing something like reading or a puzzle book.
As I say I’m sure it’s not always, but you’d be hard pushed to convince that in most cases it isn’t just laziness. People just don’t want to admit it or accept it.

On earth, I give my DC tablets because they are great tools.

No social media at all (including YouTube, Pinterest, etc), no messaging services, individually customized screen time limits, app restrictions, app store lockdowns...

=

Kids who are firmly connected to the real world, but can also watch Horrible Histories or Numberblocks when on a plane. Also, I know many people are against homework being set on apps, but with two left-handers, it's helped ease some frustrations!!

Did anyone else click on this wondering what the deal was with paracetamol?

You’re not in Scotland and using the word jolly 😂

Nah I’m kidding. I agree with you. We have an iPad that we all use. I don’t want my daughter to have her own one. It’s not necessary.

We are not all using AI at work.

Some of us still use our brains.

Which is fantastic for digital inclusion!

You can be a rubbish lazy parent without tablets and a good involved patent with a tablet. The two are not linked.

Like everything, its how you use that counts. DD (now 14) has a duolingo streak of 450 days. That amount of daily Spanish practice is very beneficial. Shes been using it regularly since she was 11. She does Maths games, wirdle, geography games etc as well. But the Spanish... neither DH know much beyond "hello, a beer please"

Just watching toy unwrapping videos for hours on end at 7 would be a bad use of the technology.

Learning apps are not all equal all the reading books being digital I don't like, which I believe now happens. But times table practice on TTs rockstars is a useful tool.

I completely agree that schools etc shouldn't be pushing their use. But why tablets specifically? I would have thought phones or laptops are just as bad, and really, under 12s is too wide of an age range. Up to age 7 or 8 no one should need a device really, from age 9-11, it would be quite unusual to have never had access to any type of screen.

To actually answer the question from my own POV OP, I gave my son a tablet for downloading films/shows when we travel and for video calling his dad (that app is only on my user profile on it). School do ask that they play a maths app, but it doesn't even get turned on most days as he'd much rather play with figures or lego, and he has no idea youtube could be accessed.

So I think there are reasonable uses, but I realise that plenty of children aren't able to regulate their own use of it and I got lucky!

Did he or your kids turn out any different?

Nope - kids can and do use AI - they also practice their hand writing, and possibly independent thinking and writing skills. They reality is kids homework is easy, give it to AI and it will be done in seconds, kids will learn nothing if all they do is cut and paste it in. My kids love computers and coding and homework booklets.

We have one iPad in the house. DD1 does her TT Rockstars and Teams homework on it. She can’t access YouTube on it or age inappropriate content due to a VPN we have on it. She does play some age appropriate games on it from time to time, and is learning French on Duolingo. Roblox is banned in our house. We don’t limit screen time for our DDs as we don’t want it to be seen as something overly desirable (I appreciate this doesn’t work for everyone), but they are good at self regulating. They have barely given it a second glance this weekend, and instead have chosen to play out for hours with the neighbours’ kids.

Well there are lots of reasons the kid might be using the iPad... it doesn't meant it is their own personal device.

Sometimes parents just need a breather from the relentlessness that is parenting small children.

My 4yo dd is asking for one because her nursery use them 😫.
I find it so sad when you see little toddlers out a restaurant with headphones and tablets. How is teaching them how to behave in a social situation? They'll be ending up with social anxiety as adults.
It is lazy parenting

From my own experience, not all parents are ready to deal with the real life implications of sticking to their own strict rules around screens.

I am a parent who gives zero fucks, I will not bend to playground pressures. But I am not heartless. Kids, like my own, who have no access to YouTube, Roblox etc, often find themselves out of the loop. My eldest said that every week there is something new. My DC are quite confident, and they don't get upset if frozen out of conversations they have no clue about (for example, my DC still have no idea what Skibidi Toilet is about). But for some children, this would be unbearable daily pressure. Many parents will relax their rules, simply because they don't want their children to 'suffer'.

TV is very different. It doesn't cause myopia for a start and it went off a certain time.

It really isn't great parenting to let a child have unrestrictive access to any device when they're little SEN or not (and one of mine does have SEN and her behavior is significantly worst if we do)

Please do share your credible evidence regarding tech causing social anxieties
Or are you just making it up to prove a spurious point

So why did Steve Jobs who was one of the inventors of the iPad and iPhone refuse to give his children one?
https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-steve-jobs-never-let-his-kids-use-ipad-apple-social-media-2017-3
Additionally about eight years ago I met a lovely gentleman from East Asia who had been flown in by an application developer because he was a psychologist who specialized in addiction. He was there to make the games and applications more addictive to anyone that played them. Dopamine hits and endorphins. I do have a medical background.
I was a bit shocked by that level of conniving.

15 hours a day? I doubt it-That only leaves 9 hours for bath and sleep!

Yeah I’m sure a parent who lets their child sit on an iPad for 15 hours a day is concerned about bath times and bedtime routines…

How novel. A thread about screens.
I posted on a similar thread the other day that heavy screen use is not that new for some people. My now 40 year old brother is a well adjusted, happily married dad with a very responsible job and he was pretty much a sonic addict before the age of ten. He must have spent at least 40% of his time awake as a teen playing WW2 games or watching films.
My ND late speaking child has had her greatest gains in speech and communication skills when using screens to support her.
If you are paranoid about tech and limiting this excessively, when will your child learn to cope in a world that requires aptitude with screens and tech to book medical appointments, use a modern tv, order in restaurants, pay for car parking, apply for jobs, manage bank accounts etc etc? These skills take time to learn and bed in. I'm noticing with my mother that the basic but useful tech skills she learned over the past decade or so are becoming beyond her as she moves into the 'elderly' stage of life. She rants about how difficult and rubbish the modern world is and needs help with online banking etc. An extreme example, but still.

Same. Actually at first I thought ecstasy. It’s been a long weekend.

First I’ve heard of it and I’m in Scotland. Our school has to raise funds for equipment like this to be used in school, and there certainly isn’t one available for every child.