To think current concerns over screen time is bordering hysteria

[Tiredboymum22]

I think it’s over the top.

If my kids didnt have screens, nothing would get done. I’m mostly solo parenting. Family can’t babysit, husband works late 6 days a week. Childcare costs are through the roof.

I have a 6-year-old with ASD and a very hyperactive toddler. Eldest is obsessed with numbers and Minecraft, uninterested in his little brother a lot of the time. Up at 4.30 am most mornings too. I give my toddler the tablet when I’m trying to cook or tidy up (once he’s done playing with his toys).

I am criticised by older members of my family and told I should let him “help me” cook. Sorry but no.

Now I’m seeing countless articles and comments about the harm of too much screen time, but I think people are missing a lot of nuance.

aibu?

If a 3 year old was on the street unsupervised? Someone would be calling someone!

TV in the 90s vs TV now is non comparable. The shows for kids today and highly overstimulating and harmful.

Do people not see what my teen calls the iPad kids?
What another poster mentioned about seeing a baby given a tablet and dummy is what has rapidly changed in last 5 years.
It’s absolutely shocking.
Babies and very young toddlers in buggies or at tables in cafes totally in their own little zombie stare world.
I’m in an affluent area so can’t even say it’s due to deprivation.

While I agree with you I also think there were poor choices of kids TV then too. The adverts to start with, some of the cartoons.
My youngest DD who is 28 used to behave monstrously after watching the cramp twins. There is still TV that's pretty ok for kids mostly on BBC. Probably why so many want rid of the BBC so they can brainwash kids with junk.

Absolutely agree. I walked to school by myself from the age of 5 in the 70s. Imagine the horrors if a kid was walking themselves to reception now a good mile and over 1 busy road! You just played and behaved and it was more luck than management that you got through unscathed. Mother decorated, baked, made clothes, sunbathed and we kept out of her way.

Yeah I’m sure there was some harmful content back then but you didn’t have the super fast paced , adhd inducing programs like we have now (e.g cocomelon, paw patrol, peppa pig etc). BBC has some better choices, you’re right.

The other thing was that there used to be a limited number of programs for kids at certain times and that was it whereas now parents can just stream junk TV all day if they want to.

I just need to point out that television can't "induce" ADHD. That's just in the kids.

I assume you mean it can trigger symptoms of ADHD in children that have it, rather than cause it.

Content available to the children 14+ when they were toddlers is wildly different to the content aimed at preschoolers/primary aged now. If I was talking about my 16yo, I'd agree because he used YouTube to watch fairy tales. Each story was at least 10 mins long and they were gentle paced. Not much different to a TV program.

The content now is not like that. It is designed to be addictive. It is designed for instant gratification and total immersion. It is awful for any child, but especially ND children.

My youngest loves science and watching science experiments on YouTube. I have investigated all the app-limiting and parental control software but the most you can do is age restrictions and time restrictions so even if intentions start off well, children quickly find the brain-rot nonsense that has been designed to hook them. So even though my DS wants to use YouTube for educational, well intentioned purposes - he can't. It's designed in such a way it always leads to the shite on there.

I think it was for children too young to just be left with siblings, toddlers, you wouldn't remember. There were also stories of two year olds drowning in rivers because their siblings were distracted

Yes, but it wasn’t as accessible. You had to start up the computer and get online. Things are now at your finger tips, literally. You can lose a whole morning scrolling and hopping from one brain rotting social media site to another from the comfort of your sofa, bed, toilet seat 🫣 🤣

I think what this poster is getting at is that the programmes induce problems with attention - therefore they DO induce attention deficit.

I think that’s true and entirely reasonable.

Wow. That's a lot of time they were on screens for. Why send them to school at all? The iPad did it all!

No, they can maybe cause problems with attention span. That's very different to ADHD.

im also a single parent and couldn’t parent without screens .

Yes but as a parent it was as much of a worry then even when you had a computer in the kitchen for all to access kids still found a way round to Google images and put things like ''tits' into the search engine. Today you are more likely to come up with pictures of birds.

It can mimic symptoms of ADHD, but no, it cannot cause ADHD.

Kids always played out from an early age where we live, absolutely nothing abnormal in that.

🤣🤣🤣have you tried google tits? I’ve just googled as per your example and I don’t wish to put a screenshot of the results as I will probably get banned.

@unbelievablybelievable

Actually your assumption is wrong, my 14 year old mostly accesses things meant for a much younger child and yes he does watch some pretty awful drivel - I don't like it, but I also don't try and ban it because there is balance elsewhere in his life. (Videos of cartoon slides I'm looking at you)

We also pay for YouTube premium to stop any adverts (I appreciate that I am lucky to be able to afford that)

This following advice is for any parent who lets their child have any access to YouTube. (I don't know about YouTube kids)

A few searches of your own can change the algorithm of what's being seen by your child quite quickly. It's actually designed to feed you the content you respond to and what you actually want to see. You can make this work for you. (In fact it's what we should all be doing when interacting with any algorithm based system)

Start from the beginning - clear all history. Agree with them the kind of content they enjoy and set up watch lists, liking the things you want in their feeds. Block any channels you really don't like and keep doing this. Spend some time in the evening watching by yourself and dismiss/dislike (click not interested/don't recommend channel) to anything you don't want them to see that the algorithm serves you. It sometimes takes a month or so to clear any previous algorithm content - but the algorithm is designed to serve you content you want to see - you can get it to the point where it's quite tailored about what it shows.

Obviously this needs attention and regular checking of histories - but i rarely find anything of even mild concern in my child's watching history.

If we all teach the algorithms to ignore the content we don't want to see it will stop being made because the financial incentive is removed.

This is a handy guide how the YouTube algorithm has evolved and where it's at today (this is written for the content creator - but like being able to parse how things are sold to you - knowing how something works helps you to understand its effects better.

How the YouTube algorithm works

This is one of the many reasons why teaching digital literacy is so important.

Lol there are more controls parents can put on mine comes up with little feathered ones and The big garden birdwatch!

I think the limits on kids TV were pre Sky.
There was a lot of shit TV in the 90s and 00s which you did think as a parent this is making the kids hyper. Trash TV like the Disney stuff Sweet Life of Zach and Cody, Hannah Montana that you worried we're giving unrealistic expectations and body images etc. The worrying about the effect it has was the same.
Personally when I hear kids YouTube or Cocomelon I cannot stand hearing religious undertones it's like brainwashing. That worries me.

I watched a lot of TV growing up and I’m entirely normal. I now listen to podcasts and audiobooks with my phone in my bra as I do the myriad of tedious tasks that need doing daily. I fully expect my kids to I’ll do similar as they mature. Shit will get done but they’ll have a background of a screen lurking somewhere.

But that just shows you have no screening set up. I put in ‘tits’ and I get a whole page of feathery birds. All our devices have SafeSearch set up including the adult’s screens. .

Steve Jobs wouldn’t let his kids use an iPhone

• He restricted access to all personal tech at home.
• He believed in creativity, conversation, and boundaries over unlimited screen time.
• Other tech leaders like Bill Gates did the same.

they don't vaccinate their children either🤔

Not sure why you're bringing vaccines into this? Steve jobs died of a treatable cancer because he refused medical care so he's not the best example if you're trying to promote alternative medicine/anti vax