Experts have warned that parents who allow babies and toddlers to access tablet computers for several hours a day are in danger of causing dangerous long term effects.The youngest known patient being treated in the UK is a four-year-old girl from the South East.Her parents enrolled her for compulsive behaviour therapy after she became increasingly distressed and inconsolable when the iPad was taken away from her.read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Addicted? Maybe so...but at this age it sounds to me like a spoiled child who was never told 'no' but if it was it reacted by throwing a fit. So, the parents gave in. Sounds like a an undisciplined child to me. And now they call it addiction...Oh, dear...SIGH
_________________Sandra Miller
Ginnyrose,If the child is in fact a toddler I think it could be addiction or worse. Babies apparently do not initially realise that they are a separate beings to their mothers and takes some time to form a mental model of the world. An iPad thrown to toddler at a tender age could easily cause the toddler to form an interpretation of the world that creates a mental dependency on the device. I have young nephews that probably can't tie their own shoelaces yet but handle iPads, Mobile Phones, PlayStations, etc with a scary intimacy.PassingThru
So you are suggesting these children go through withdrawal when denied access to electronics like druggies do when they quit drugs cold turkey?I know some adults who misuse their cell phones/ipads. They will be texting while in the company of others instead of visiting verbally. To me it is plain old fashioned rudeness rooted in ego and selfishness, no consideration for the feelings of others. All they care about is their own ego. They do not find current company interesting nor do they have the personal intellectual resources to be interesting APART from this electronic gizmo. They simply do not know how to communicate verbally. We had an employee one time who spent a LOT of time texting while she should be working. My husband told her to leave her phone in the car while she is working. She quit at the end of the day and then told people that she cannot do the work good enough for Sandra!!! The reality is her work was fine as long as she was not on the phone.Personally, I find it abhorrent to see young children texting while with their families or shopping forcing me to question the mental state of those parents. Having said all this I must acknowledge the value of texting even in the presence of friends. We have in our church a family with deaf children - now adults. They rely on texting when communicating with others - most people cannot understand their speech. But this type of situation is unusual. Yes, methinks this problem is not limited to toddlers...I still wonder if a few spankings would not cure these children's desire for ipads...
Maybe if these toddlers were not give ipads in the first place, there wouldn't be a problem.I've seen adults in church using ipads, and looking at pictures, watching soccer etc, whilst the preaching is taking place.It looks like an epidemic, and the little ones are getting caught up in it.These gadgets seem to desensitise people to God. They simply prefer the gadgets to God, and it shows.Psalm 101:3, "I will set nothing wicked before my eyes..."If it destroys these young minds now, what of the future?If it destroys our desire for God, it is wicked.If it can be used for good, so be it, but to abuse it's use can be deadly.God help us all.
The same thing is going on with adults. People are unable to go 15 minutes without some sort of media. Smart phones, iPad and other tables, PC or laptops and of course the dummy box television.People have such a hard time spending time being quiet before the Lord in meditation and worship. Gone are the days of people spending extended times quiet before the Lord seeking His face. I remember days when a preacher would expound on the Word of God for an hour and thirty minutes and the Holy Spirit was moving on the hearts of men that no one would want it to end. Now in some churches if the pastor goes past 17 minute limit allotted; people are restless and moving towards the door.Of course God can work in five minutes as much as an hour but it is that people cant sit still anymore. People have attention spans that are unable to extend past 140 character tweet.I work in the IT field and see it every day. People are lost without their device. They cant even look you in the eye to talk anymore.There is nothing I enjoy more than getting up very early in the morning and being with the Lord and in the Word of God perhaps Im just getting too old and am not progressive enough