Time was when there were different rules for the many different bits of equipment that might educate or distract a child.
Way back then, the telephone was kept in a central location, so Mom and Dad could know how much time you spent gabbing with your friends. If you were lucky, it had a really long cord so you could pull it around a corner or behind a closed door.
The television was also a communal thing. Mostly entertainment, some educational value. There wasn't all that much to watch on any given night, so parents could limit use without too much push back.
A typewriter, though, was allowed anytime. Why would anyone tell a young student he or she was spending too much time on the typewriter? And encyclopedias were the same thing. Yes Junior, you may keep Volume W in your room overnight. Of course you may read it for awhile before you go to bed.
Today, a single seductive machine serves all these purposes. A computer or laptop or tablet is simultaneously our children's source of communication, procrastination, education and entertainment. What rules to make, then, for this hydra-headed tool?
If you haven't needed to answer that question already, you will any minute now. A Nielsen survey released today, titled "American Families See Tablets as Playmate, Teacher and Babysitter," found that in households that contained both children and tablet computers, seven out of ten kids under the age of 12 used the tablet -- a 9 percent increase compared with just three months earlier.
And what are these not-yet-12-year-olds using their tablets for? All the things that kids have always done but have traditionally needed to do less sleekly and more publicly. Mostly they are downloading games (77 percent do that). "Educational purposes" trails in second place (57 percent) with "entertainment while traveling" (55 percent) close behind. Forty-three percent use the tablets to "watch TV shows/movies," while 41 percent entertain themselves at restaurants and other events, and only 15 percent say they "communicate with friends and family" on the devices.
So in the not-quite-two-years since the iPad was introduced, then, we have gone from zero (percentage of parents I'd bet let their preteens play with the gadgets at first) to 70 (percentage that do now). Are you among them? If so, when the tablet is in your child's hands, do you look at it as you would a telephone? A television? A typewriter? An encyclopedia? What are the rules at your house?
I'd like to think that most parents encourage educational use but obviously the recent study you site indicates mostly game use. Hope that changes in time.
An important study for parents to be aware of is how over-stimulating young children (under 2 years) with video and other media can lead to ADHD when they are older. Check out the study and accompanying video in my recent article, "Are We Over-Stimulating Young Children" at http://ow.ly/9eoQ2.
I have four kids, twelve apple and android devices - and zero problems, just because of those three rules.
Or, at least, that is what all the evidence suggests.
The non-empirical conjectures, of course, indicate that just being able to afford an IPAD for your child means you are both genius level thinkers and communicators.
I try to engage her with real life activities as much as I put her in front of a media screen. I think exposing kids to media early is great as long as there is a lot of parental involvment.
Please learn the difference between the two major tablet computer manufacturers before writing an article on the tech page.
Seriously, the "journalist" here is a complete joke. This is the same that wrote the article about how we should ban the word "Wife" from the English language. Please go to the "Contact Us" section and express your distaste. As mere readers this is all we can do, but considering the size and popularity of this site, we deserve better than this drivel.
1. Eats Breakfast
2. Gets dressed
3. Brushes her teeth
What's the Rule? In life you get your reward AFTER you complete your tasks. (Work then paycheck!)
www.GoodParentGoodChild.com
Rules:
1. Its communal. You have to share it. Benefit #1: you must learn to take turns. Fail to do so and it goes away. Benefit #2: If its a semi-ediucational game (like the spelling ones), your younger sibling is learning while watching you. You have to help him when its his turn.
2. You may not download anything.
3. Sometimes you have to try out a new thing on it. You can't play the same thing again and again and again.
4. Sometimes it goes away. Its just not iPad time.
In our home, this device replaces a lot of others. We do not have a game system. I prefer the tablet, because when its out of sight, its out of mind. We have Netflix and Apple TV, but only basic cable. There is not constant streaming of annoying noise from a talking box in our house. If the TV comes on, it comes on after discussion and compromise.
IMO, its not technology itself that's the problem. Its (1) content -- there is a lot of lousy content out there, and (2) isolationism: is the device used in isolation to such an extent that it impairs the development of other skills (i.e., getting along with your sibling, getting exercise).
Frankly, I think my kids have it better than I did. I have every episode of The Smurfs and Family Ties memorized. Ugh. What I could have done with those lost brain cells!