Researcher shares ways to find out if a child is an ‘iPad kid’: 'It doesn’t take very long to tell'

More parts of our lives continue to become entangled with the digital world, making them an unavoidable aspect of our daily routine. Adults have to find a balance and avoid sitting in front of their screens too much. Moreover, there is a major problem with younger generations being exposed to screens for long periods of time. The term "iPad Kid" has become a mainstream term, referring to kids who are allowed unhealthy amounts of screen time by their parents. A woman on TikTok, who goes by @ratiliciousxx, shared a video where she talked about this problem.

The video has got 1.3 million views and 4468 comments on the social media site. Liv starts the video by sharing how she saw a video of a parent justifying their decision to give their kids an iPad to keep them distracted and how people without kids should not make parenting suggestions. The woman says that she presently works with infants ranging from three months to three years of age. She clarified that she was not a childcare provider but that she used to work in childcare.

The woman was now working as a researcher who dealt with small infants, which gave her some insights about iPad kids. She says, "Every single time an iPad kid comes in, we, the researchers, know. It doesn't take very long to tell there is a big difference between babies who are exposed to screen 24/7 and babies who are not." The woman adds how it only took them 10 minutes to gauge whether an infant had been overly exposed to screens.

She continues, "At one point, we give the parent an iPad and if the baby cannot have that iPad, all hell breaks loose." The woman highlights how such a scenario was like the "end of the world" for the iPad kid. She mentions how she had met babies who were ten months old and did not show any interest in normal baby toys. Instead, they had an unhealthy obsession with seeing an iPad, which concerned the woman a lot.

Liv concludes the video by saying, "Personally, I think your method of parenting is flawed, if there's a lot of research showing that it is flawed and that people can tell like that if your child has screen time or not." She wrote in the caption, "If I ever have kids, they're getting minimal screen time like I'm talking almost zero. I feel so bad for teachers, too." People fully agreed with the woman's take on the problem and shared their thoughts in the comments section.

@sassylizards commented, "People raised kids for millennia before the iPad was invented, so yeah, I think I can definitely judge the lady with the iPad kid in the cart at the grocery store." @hello_thisisbri highlighted, "As a childcare worker, one of the things I think is the instant gratification and satisfaction the iPad provides. Kids don't have patience." Another individual, @california.bunbun, shared, "I gave my kids tablets thinking they'd learn a lot. They did, but they also had behavioral problems. Never again!"