More than half of parents admit they allow their baby to play with their phone or tablet device and one in seven parents confessed to doing so for more than four hours every day, according to a new poll by Babies.co.uk.
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James Macfarlane, Managing Director of Babies.co.uk, said: “Given that babies between 3-12 months are awake for only around 10 hours per day this is a huge proportion of their waking day.
“Although 81 per cent of our users felt that children today spend too much time on smart devices, it hasn’t put most of them off using them to entertain their baby.
“There’s no denying it, when a distraction is required there is often no more effective tool than giving your baby your smartphone or tablet.
“When you’re in a restaurant, in the car, or trying to hear the person on the other end of the phone, today’s technology often provides the quiet you need from your child in an instant.”
More than half of people surveyed said that they allowed their baby to use their device. What stands out though is that people aren’t confident that this form of entertainment is actually good for their child.
Whilst half of people felt that it could be educational, 69 per cent of those questioned felt that too much play on a tablet or smartphone would, or might, disconnect their baby’s relationship with them.
James added: “The real problem with babies playing with smart devices is what it leads to in the future.
“At what age will we teach them to sit patiently at the table in a restaurant, to make conversation with other people or to simply cope with being bored in every-day situations without producing our smartphone for them?
“It’s clear that the convenience of these devices is winning over parents, even some of those who think it might not be good for their child’s development.
“Tablets are helpful to parents in many situations, but it is their instantaneous effect that is probably their downfall.
“Once you establish them as an easy means of entertainment for your child it becomes hard to draw the line on when to take it away,” James said.
Half of respondents to the survey said that they felt babies could learn from using these technologies, but James suggests caution with this idea.
“It is easier for us to justify our babies using smartphones and tablets if we feel they are learning something from it,” he said.
“But for them to get the most out of a smartphone app you need to be involved too – talking about what they’re looking at and helping them to understand the point of what they’re doing.
Experts are recommending caution where these devices might be substituting play that could be more beneficial for a baby’s development.
They could be exploring their surroundings, interacting with their parents or learning to move.
Dr. Carolyn Jaynes, a learning designer for Leapfrog Enterprises, said: “Children under two years of age learn best from real-world experiences and interactions, and each minute spent in front of a screen-based device is a minute when your child is not exploring the world and using their senses, which is extremely important in their development process.”
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