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I have a 2 and a half year old son now. My wife and I have found for us that the right answer is simply moderation, variety, and supervision. 1. We moderate ho
by dak1 8y ago
I have a 2 and a half year old son now. My wife and I have found for us that the right answer is simply moderation, variety, and supervision.
1. We moderate how much time is spent on screens. Each day he probably spends a total of an hour or less in front of any screen (iPad/iPhone/Projector).
2. He does watch some (highly filtered) educational YouTube content, but we also make sure he's playing educational and interactive games, like building, drawing, and learning Chinese (we're a bilingual household). He also has lots of books and we read to him actively, he participates in sports, we take him outside to playgrounds and parks, do arts and crafts with him, and he helps us with chores around the house (in a fun way), etc.
3. When he is playing a game or watching a video, we're there participating. We're monitoring and filtering the content he's viewing, and we're actively adding to the educational experience by talking about the things he's seeing and doing with him.
Technology is a tool, and how it's used matters. Outright banning it means we're missing out on its potential benefits, and also we miss the opportunity to teach him from an early age how to use it properly. I fear a child who hasn't learned to cope with technology for 13 years and is then suddenly introduced to it will struggle far more.
It was a little bit of a struggle at first, but now when we tell him it's time to turn off the iPad, he usually will do it himself without fuss, and he increasingly will turn it off without even prompting and move on to another activity like reading or drawing.
- manux 8y ago> I fear a child who hasn't learned to cope with technology for 13 years and is then suddenly introduced to it will struggle far more. This is also one of my bigger fears. There is a strange mix of people in my generation (born 1990's), who are non-techies, and are either responsible with their internet use or display worrying signs of unhealthy internet presence. Even though tech has been around for some time now. Some, I realised, were introduced to technology rather late. A fun example is how some people would be offended if I were to call them "gamers". They don't own PC games, don't own a console, but they spend their entire commutes and more playing mobile games.
- John_KZ 8y agoThat's a great point. But it takes a lot of time and effort to filter the content your child consumes. That's because the system is designed so the end user has almost no control over the information flow. So this will affect the poor disproportionately (once again). If you don't have time to discover child-friendly, educational content, no money to buy ad-free movies and games from trusted companies, you'll just give your child a tablet with a tab open showing an educational video. What your child will be watching 10 minutes later is up the the mercy of Google. Whatever it's going to be, I bet it won't be in the best interests of your child.
- the-pigeon 8y ago> But it takes a lot of time and effort to filter the content your child consumes. It really doesn't if you use the tools available. For instance Amazon FreeTime (https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-FreeTime-Unlimited-Monthly-Subscription/dp/B01I499BNA https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-FreeTime-Unlimited-Monthly-Sub...) gives you a curated library that is appropriate for the age range you set. There's no microtransaction apps or other nonsense like that. You can even set limits like "30 minutes app time per day", "30 minutes book time", "30 minutes video time", etc. You can also remove or add specific apps you want your kid to have access to. Honestly it's wonderful to give a young kid that level of autonomy and access to information. You should still pay attention to what they do. But there's no need to give them access to the open internet or to curate everything yourself.