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Others have said more or less, but we were idealistic about limiting screen time before COVID. However, after being in the situation of having to come up with activities, some type of educational games, 3 meals, and 2 snacks every day for our 18-month-old AND work full time, the fatigue overcame our ideals after a few months. His screen time is limited and we have introduced some interactive games and so far since turning 3 and starting preschool, he doesn't seem to be jonesing for a fix all the time. Like any toddler, there are going to be tantrums about everything. But the vast majority of them have nothing to do with the iPad. So I'm certainly not going to criticize "bad" parents who have allowed their toddlers to have some screen time. But I question those here making comments from their high horses if they are actually parents or what level of support they have if they are. Just about everything is easier when you're getting more than 4 hours of sleep a night.
 
What age should children be allowed to watch TV and movies? By that, I mean educational and wholesome entertainment like PBS and Disney, which is what I grew up on in the late 90s.
 
Let me just say that it's pathetic that some parents would feel the need to give their kids a tablet/phone to enjoy life, let alone toddlers.
We are experiencing machines, mostly at an early stage of our existence, and not giving chances to these experiences means to prevent these humans to know the world with their own experience.

This society has gone nuts.
At the same time, not every experience worth experiencing. Endless screen time during infancy is certainly not one of them.
 
It's amusing reading non-parents give parents a parental advice.
True. Parenting is so easy… until you have kids. ?

As for me, I’ve still enjoyed and been challenged by this discussion. We have not introduced our three-year-old to computer games, and he can happily entertain himself with toy car adventures and coloured pencils for hours. But TV has created some issues… We see some of his most unpleasant behaviour after the TV goes off. Food for thought!
 
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Thanks for the article! Was literally just about to research how to do exactly this.

And to anyone complaining about screen time dangers or suggesting supervising use of an iPad 100.0% of the time…they clearly aren’t parents and are expressing an opinion because this is the internet and everyone must express their opinions at all times, or they actually are parents and must have the luxury of not having to do anything around the house literally ever while their child is awake. Toddlers can change iPad screens in a HURRY. And while limiting screen time to a big degree is important, there are times, like on a flight, or when you need 10 minutes to finish dinner while they’re screaming in a high chair, that an iPad can be a godsend sparingly used here and there. People, when they feel the need to express a judgmental opinion, really need to just…not sometimes.
 
I still don’t understand why someone would hand over a smart device to a child and not supervise them. ??‍♂️

are you a parent? sometimes **** is just really stressful and overwhelming. I don't do it often. My son actually seems to like the Photos app the best. Seeing photos of himself or people he knows is very interesting to him.
 
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Cartoon Network on TV, of course.

What irks me most is how little contact with actual reality those pontificating so much about kids and screen time seem to have.
Describe 'actual reality'? If you mean working and observing 4 year olds starting school who have no idea of how to 'operate a book' or throw a tantrum because their teacher ends a lesson which does use iPads. Or noting 10 to 12 year olds who are totally addicted to their device where we *have* to put parental controls on to limit access. Yes, most can self regulate by this age but for some kids, this is crack.
 
Smash it up .

I gave an iPad to my 5 year old niece , within a few days one of her friends had smashed it to bits .

Last time I do that , I’ll wait til she’s 15 thx
 
You obviously aren't a parent, especially one who has to work from home with kids running around. If my kid is sitting on the couch near me, I can pay attention. I can't work while my kid is running around the house like a monkey breaking things.
As I mention before, I am not. What I'm just saying is that many parents are using devices to keep their kids quiet as a day-to-day thing(all day). I completely agree when you say you have to work and they are just around, and can't have the physical time to take interact and be there.
However IMO, for too small kids (under 2-3yo) the "device-time" should be limited to a few moments... if none. This is a fragile age and they are very quick learners. I would try to give them things to do, interactive toys, etc. I see my nephew at 2 y.o, is "helping" his mother with the cleaning stuff and he links it.
 
Alternative option: don’t handle iPads or the likes to toddlers.

There is an entire world out there for them to discover.
Absolutely, my 2 year old gets nowhere near my stuff. The only time she watches videos on it is if she's had a night terror and is in my bed, then we'll watch some panda videos, she calms down and off to bed she goes.

I'm proud / happy that she finds a giant cardboard box more interesting than my phone :)
 
This is true for grown ups too. I think this feature will help some parents -- so it's a good thing.
At the same time, not every experience worth experiencing. Endless screen time during infancy is certainly not one of them.
I disagree.
Kids should make experiences that involve all senses, as much as possible.
A screen only focuses on the sense of vision.
But we all know that kids are all about moving, touching, and so on.
 
How about giving the iPad finally a multi-user option like every laptop? It's almost 2022, Apple!

One of those users can be a kids account.

Why re-invent the wheel?
 
It's not access to apps that I worry about. It's damage. Toddlers and babies wouldn't be entrusted with a device covered in glass that costs hundreds of dollars under any other circumstances. This is one area where, if you MUST hand over a device, the cheap Fire tablets with the bumpers all around are a better choice.
Yes I don’t let my kids anywhere near my iPads or iPhone. It’s a cheap fire tablet and they have parental controls on at all times.
 
How about BOTH? In an hour, I can give my kid 20 minutes of screen time, 20 minutes of alone play time with physical toys, and 20 minutes of interactive playtime with me. ALL are allowed to happen.

Toddlers are not that hard to entertain.

Pieces of paper and safety scissors. Hours of entertainment for toddlers.
 
At this point, the research is pretty damning. Only an idiot allows a baby or toddler any sort of screen time.
Not sure that 99% of the people on MacRumors don’t automatically qualify as an idiot. And no, I am not exempting myself.
 
Anecdote trumps peer-reviewed research? That's some pretty advanced thinking.

My son is close to graduating to the 3 year old class because he's potty trained, knows every color, numbers, letters, you name it.

All from watching youtube with his dad.

Like I said, I don't believe in just giving a kid a screen and calling it a day - whether its a book or screen in my opinion is irrelevant, be there and teach them and interact and they will pick it up faster than kids without screens. It's not the screen that's the problem, it's the content. Tablets are nothing more or less than modern day books or toys all in one.
 
It sounds like most people here don't have kids. It's near impossible to get anything done with a 3 and 5 year old running around destroying things and constantly in need of something.

Sometimes they just need to chill for one hour to let mommy and daddy do chores or put up their feet and take a breath. So it's nice to know they're not going to delete my pictures or messages during that time.
 
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My son is close to graduating to the 3 year old class because he's potty trained, knows every color, numbers, letters, you name it.

All from watching youtube with his dad.

Like I said, I don't believe in just giving a kid a screen and calling it a day - whether its a book or screen in my opinion is irrelevant, be there and teach them and interact and they will pick it up faster than kids without screens. It's not the screen that's the problem, it's the content. Tablets are nothing more or less than modern day books or toys all in one.
Nailed it!! My daughter knew all her colors, numbers, and letters at a year and a half, and she could recognize letters and numbers backwards. iPad videos taught her that.
 
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Yeah, just don't give it to them. My kids know to never touch my iPhone or iPad. Even when they were little, I can only think of a handful of times that they even touched them, and that got them time out. The thing kids need most when it comes to discipline is consistency. If you don't give them an inch, they can't take an inch.

We did limited trials once our kids turned 4. My daughter wasn't ready for an iPad. My son was. My daughter was ready when we tried again when she turned 5. The primary reason was because there are a lot of good educational apps out there and our school district uses iPads in the classroom in elementary school.

At first we were very restrictive on screen time, limiting to 20-30 minutes per day. Since then I've relaxed the restrictions somewhat, especially for my daughter during the pandemic. She had a remote learning iPad provided by the school that she had to use for class all day, so there was a lot of iPad time. Honestly she was really good about using it and matured a lot through 2020 into 2021. I've given her a wider range of time she can use it, but there are time restrictions on certain categories of apps, while others such as reading, drawing, and educational games such as math and science are unrestricted (within the larger time limit).

She seems quite well adjusted, as she is equally happy playing outside in the forest in the treehouse and swingset I built for them as she is playing on the iPad. My son, who is younger, would probably prefer to be on his iPad, but we're currently still restricting his screen time and so he spends a lot of time outdoors, as well as playing with his legos and such or drawing in his room. Neither one of them know not to fight us on screen time, as we will just take away the iPad for a full week. We haven't had to do that in ages, and using Apple's built-in tools, it can happen automatically and they know it's time to be done. As with all things when it comes to children, it's about discipline and consistency. When you set clear ground rules, the child knows what to expect and when you consistently follow up with punishment if the rules are broken, it establishes a framework that they can understand and process. There is clearly delineated cause and effect, punishment and reward for their actions. And that's what they respond to.

Some people might say "But my kid is just in a rotten mood, what then?" Well, you can't always predict a mood, but for us what has helped the most with that is consistency in routine. Bad mood often stems from uneven sleep cycles and hunger. Once those needs are consistently met, mood improves. Our children have had a consistent bedtime since they were born. They know to start getting ready for bed every day at 7:30 and that lights go out at 8pm. There is no fighting it because they haven't really known something different. But I've noticed that when traveling or other emergencies come up and bedtime is missed (or when they were younger, nap time) that is when they would get really upset and irritable.

BTW I'm not some guru, but I'm married to a childcare professional who used to wrangle children with autism and went to college for this stuff. I've been supportive and on-board with everything she says and it has worked out well for me!
 
One nice thing with this is that it also removes the awful Home Bar which I don't want to be seen at all when in a game for example. I can't understand why Apple won't let us disable this everywhere if wanted.
First any parent SHOULD NOT let their toddlers watch Teletubbies!
I'm surprised those 2 kids are not on FaceBook already.
Their already on Teletubbies - they're doomed already.
 
First any parent SHOULD NOT let their toddlers watch Teletubbies!

Maybe so. I wasn't thinking about that at all when I posted, I just don't like the Home Bar very much, especially in certain situations (when gaming). But I meant that as a grown-up. :)
 
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Their mothers didn't work. And they had more siblings.
My mum tells me that when she was a kid, all the kids on the street had to go and play outside until dinner time. All the kids on the street would play with each other all day long. And due to a lack of hearing about every little horrible thing that happened anywhere in the world, there was much less fear about the world, and kids had the freedom to go out and play on the street, and explore the local neighbourhood. I had a pretty similar childhood, mum was full anti-TV, so we'd be outside playing mostly. Our imagination would rule, we'd dig holes in the dirt and pretend we were building cities, bridges, dams, whatever, we'd run about with sticks imagining they were everything and anything we thought of, we had bikes, and would build little jumps, we played sports, hide and seek, chasey, and so on.
 
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