The problem with Labour’s toddler screen-time guidance |
As a parent of an 18-month-old, the glorious weather last weekend could mean only one thing: a tour of the various playgrounds on offer in Oxford. Amidst the joyful scenes of children digging in sandpits, rocketing down slides and queueing to buy ice creams, there was one particularly depressing image that summed up this strange, screen-obsessed world we live in. On the swings was a child, around 3 or 4-years-old, silently swaying back and forth, eyes glued to an iPad mere inches from his face. He was completely oblivious to the fun, laughter and play going on around him, and his mum? She was on her phone too, of course.
This eerie, almost dystopian image of a toddler fixated on a screen, outside on the sunniest day of the year, may seem like an extraordinary exception. Yet the truth is that from the moment they are born, children go from being umbilically tethered to their mothers to invisibly tied to the technology around them. For some children the screen-time shackles are more obvious than others.
Ideally, we need sustained investment in public service children’s programming
Ideally, we need sustained investment in public service children’s programming
How do we tackle this problem? We need widespread social change so that handing your two-year-old an iPad becomes as taboo as........