Kerby Anderson

If you type the words “tablet kids” into a search engine, up will pop all sorts of tablets for young children. If you look far enough, you will see a press report of a medical study that would warn you not to purchase one of those tablets.

The Journal of the American Medical Association on Pediatrics documents such concerns in the article on “Early-Childhood Tablet Use and Outbursts of Anger.” The researchers found that children who spend 75 minutes or more per day on a computer screen at age 3.5 are more likely to experience anger and frustration outbursts a year later. The study also warned that this cycle may continue, as children who are more likely to express anger and frustration at age 4.5 may spend even more time on a tablet a year later.

As you might imagine, the study was greeted by many skeptics with comments like: Tell me something I didn’t know. Any parent or grandparent who has children or grandchildren who are becoming addicted to digital devices has seen this behavior. The value of this study is to document it and predict that it will get worse over time.

There is some value in allowing a young child to look at a computer screen for a few minutes just to get some sanity as you are walking through “the valley of the diapers.” Giving a computer tablet to a young child might distract them for a moment. It might even help avoid a temper tantrum, but the long-term impact on the child is not good. It will perpetuate a cycle where a parent gives a tablet to an angry child, only to later have an even angrier child.

This study warns against allowing young children to become addicted to digital devices. If you allow that to continue, you will likely create an unsocialized, tech-dependent, angry child.