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Two-thirds of babies watch screens – some for eight hours a day

46 points by oj2828

by littlecranky67

5 subcomments

I once in a supermarket saw a probably 2-year old sitting in a stroller, holding a smartphone watching Youtube. When the ads came up, the little fella confidently pressed the "skip ad" button. I was perplexed and stunned, how can a child that can't even walk yet have the practice to know how to skip the ads. I don't even want to know the screentime that kid has.

by zthrowaway

4 subcomments

I have two boys. 2 and 5. We’ve never done screens, instead we do books and focused attention from each parent and we are looked at like crazy people when we tell people that. But our kids are miles ahead of their cohorts in attention span, respectfulness, behavior, socializing, etc. It’s actually alarming. I really worry about them being outcasts just by being raised like we all were.

by donatj

5 subcomments

My wife stays home with our kids. My daughter ends up watching a fair bit of television while my wife does chores and the like.
We're entirely curating what she's watching and I'm just not that concerned. If anything, she's learning things that I would not thought to teach her at her age. About 6 months ago she had an assessment through the school district for early education and at 2 years of age was able to identify about half the letters of the the alphabet.
My wife and I watching this happen were genuinely surprised because neither of us had even considered trying to teach the alphabet to a 2-year old. We did not teach her this, educational content taught her this.
I don't really worry. I watched TV basically my entire childhood growing up in the '80s, in the height of stranger danger where I largely was not allowed to go outside. It was a lot worse than this. I watched game shows, Hogans Heroes, Night Court. She's watching Ms. Rachel, Meekah, and Sesame Street.
I think the kids will be all right as long as you're involved. We're not hand our kid a tablet and saying "Go nuts". We're watching TV in the living room as a family.

by helle253

0 subcomment

One thing I'm really glad we've been doing with our eldest (3) is Saturday morning cartoons
We only let her watch occasionally during the week, but saturday morning, she gets to sit in front of the TV for a few hours and watch cartoons that she gets to pick (from an approved list)
It's always SO heartwarming how excited she gets when she realizes its Saturday morning.

by nfRfqX5n

0 subcomment

we avoid it very well with our kids but sometimes I am worried it won't make a difference in the long run and we are just doing hard mode for no reason. kids are pretty adaptable. will be interesting to see in 10-15 years.

by Mashimo

2 subcomments

> A report finds a third of newborns use devices for more than three hours, despite government advice that under-twos have no screen time at all
Disgusting :(
That said, I can't read the article, paywalled. Anyone have a working link?

by bcjdjsndon

2 subcomments

TBF content is generally better than it was 15 years ago even for babies. I don't blame em...