The Case For Unlimited Tablet Time For Toddlers
While I don't like children watching television, these limits are dependent on their knee-jerk reactions (kids these days and their screens!) rather than anything that's relevant to children's development.
The majority of research on screen time is based on studies of kids who watch TV as opposed to those who do not, as Emily Oster explains at Fivethirtyeight-and the effects usually disappear when differences in demographics like income, race, and education are considered.
Television probably isn't inherently bad for kids, and other tablet activities like video games shouldn't be lumped in with watching TV in any way. Cobra Planet When I wrote about tablet time, Lifehacker, I reviewed the research. To summarize the key differences:
Television is passive. You observe the events that happen. The stuff that happens doesn't have any significance to you. Your grandma might be watching TV but not your grandma.
One of the AAP's pediatricians wrote in JAMA Pediatrics (be aware that he was speaking for him and not the AAP). He said that iPad play is more than playing with blocks or reading a book with a caregiver rather than watching TV passively.
Nonprofit Zero to Three's evidence-based guidelines stress the importance of finding suitable content, instead of imposing time limitations. However their evidence of the importance of "appropriate content" is weak at times.
Maybe it's better to say that kids should be playing educational video games with their dads instead of throwing birds at asteroids over and over again. However, I'm not sure about that. My toddler has no problem with his numbers and letters and has figured them out through some combination of real life and ok, maybe TV-but he is more aware of orbital mechanics from Angry Birds Space than I ever did from high school Physics class.
(When I wrote about Angry Birds in my Lifehacker piece, I received comments insisting that I was wrong and that my toddler could not be doing more than aimless swiping. The good news is that if you think a one year old can play Angry Birds, you haven’t been around a lot with children of one year olds recently.
My children each have their own tablet (a Nook HD+ that they bought at a great price and then rooted to run Cyanogenmod's Android version). They choose what age-appropriate use they will make of it. The five-year-old makes use of it to create elaborate creations in Minecraft (a sort of lego-block world) and also to study whatever is on his mind ("OK Google, show me pictures of narwhal skeletons.") The two-year-old explores the science behind Angry Birds. Both children play problem-solving games such as Cut the Rope and Bad Piggies and sometimes for hours. To be fair, they also watch many videos on Youtube.
Imagine for the moment that you want your child to spend all day on tablets. What issues do you anticipate? They'd be bored. They'd come up with new and interesting things to do with it, and not be able to accept what you suggested. If they came across something better and wanted to keep it, they'd store it for a few days. Guess what? This is exactly what happens when you allow unlimited screen-time on your device and the novelty wears off.
I don't think that a prohibited fruit policy is the best. If my kids had an hour of screen time each day, I guarantee they would only use it to watch cartoons. However, sometimes they text to their dads or grandparents, or they sit with me to play a puzzle game or the older kid will show his younger brother how to install and play with something new.
Today, Google and touchscreens and online communication are just part of the background of everyday life. My kids know how to skip advertisements on videos and how navigate websites even though they don't understand the language. They can find out the information available on a mobile phone and will ask Daddy for help or Google or enter something into the GPS. The idea of keeping kids away from screens is just as absurd as if parents of the past kept their children away from the radio or the phone or pencils and papers.
For the Lifehacker piece, I asked Clare Smith, a language development researcher who has written about screen time, whether she agrees with my view on this. Here's her response:
This technology has opened up new opportunities for social engagement, learning and work as well as leisure. It is becoming the norm and our children will be expected be proficient in this technology. It is just another media type that can be utilized in any way you want. Choosing devices and apps is the same as choosing toys or books, and each one should be evaluated on its own merits. My children are taking to gaming and social networks and we're doing our best to guide them through the associated risks and advantages. As a parent who conscientious teaches their child about safety on the roads and in the face of danger from strangers and healthy eating habits and disciplined learning, it could also extend to technology and the internet.
Screen time isn't something you should keep kids away from. It's an everyday thing. We shouldn't pretend that it's some kind of tragedy to hand an infant an iPad.
