2-Year-Olds Using Smartphones for 6 Hours a Day Report on Parents Relying on App-Based Parenting and Surprising Claims of English Education Before Learning Japanese

WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines do not recommend viewing smartphones under the age of one. However, in Japan, one in three one-year-olds is placed in an environment where the Internet is used on a daily basis, and their screen time is as follows

Less than 1 hour 48.5

Less than 1 to 2 hours 29.5

2 to less than 4 hours 17.9

More than 4 hours 4.1

These are the findings of a paper that was also introduced in [ Part 1: “Shuddering Childcare Workplace” Reporto], in which young children who cannot let go of their smartphones were asked to spend more time with their parents. And in the past few years, there has been a trend that much of childcare is being done by apps.

His recent book, “Reporto: Smartphone Childcare Breaks Children” (Shinchosha) is a reportage that sheds light on the reality of such smartphone childcare. Taking a cue from this book, we would like to look at the reality of child-rearing that has been replaced by apps.

Nursery school teachers do not necessarily believe that the use of smartphones is wrong. Smartphones have their advantages, but there are certain abilities that can only be fostered by direct parental childcare. What teachers are concerned about is that the latter ability will not be nurtured by being replaced by apps for everything.

Vacuum cleaner sound with the “Stop Crying App

The director of the day-care center interviewed for this book had the following to say.

Parents these days often use ‘cry-it-out apps. Small children cry a lot. When they start the app, it plays the sound of a vacuum cleaner, vinyl, etc., along with various images. The children’s attention is then drawn to the sound or video, and the crying stops instantly.

Of course, we understand that the parents are using it because they are worried. However, the child is crying because he or she has something to say. Even if it is a little troublesome for the parents, by taking care of them and fussing over them, and by understanding and fulfilling the child’s wishes, an attachment relationship is formed and emotional growth takes place. However, what the application does is to ignore all such things and just mechanically make the child stop crying. Children who are routinely raised that way often develop differences from those who are not.”

It is not only “cry-it-out apps” that can substitute for some of the childcare. In addition to the “bedtime app” introduced in Part 1, there are countless other apps such as “singing apps” and “anti-dragging apps.

According to teachers, children who are exposed to these apps on a daily basis are often more emotionally unstable than other children. They say that things like panicking over the slightest thing, raising their hands to other children, breaking things, and not taking naps …… are happening.

The director says.

The director said, “When I see them at the preschool, it is obvious that there are problems with the children, but it is difficult to tell the parents. But it’s hard to tell the parents. If an older teacher says something, they are dismissed as ‘times are different from when you were a teacher,’ and if a younger teacher says something, they are upset because they don’t know how hard it is to raise a child. We can’t say anything, and we have to put it down as a “characteristic” of the child.

These parents tend to use apps not only for everyday matters, but also for educational matters.

A survey of parents at one preschool revealed a certain number of families who show their phones for five to six hours a day; one parent with a two-year-old child said

‘We basically show them our phones while we are at home, maybe 6 hours a day. I show my children their favorite videos, but what I make them do as a parent are educational apps. They do puzzles and other things to develop their intelligence. I also let them play English apps, math apps, and so on.

The parent seemed convinced that it was a good idea to have her child listen to native English speakers and use educational apps as early as possible.

The teacher advised, “It’s important to make your child smarter.

The teacher advised, “It’s important to make your child smart. But your child has just turned 2 years old and does not even speak Japanese. What will happen if parents don’t speak to them in Japanese and play English apps for hours on end?　I think it would be better to wait until they are old enough to walk and play with other children before using educational apps. What parents need to do now is to be as direct as possible with their children, and to pour out love and rich words to them.

The parent replied, “I understand,” and left, but as far as the teacher could see, the frequency of application use seemed to be increasing, not decreasing. In fact, even at age 3, he could hardly talk or relate to others.

I am not confident he can play well.”

So the teacher suggested another interview and suggested that the use of the apps be reduced. The parent responded, “I am not confident I can play well with my child.

I am not confident that I can play well with my child. I don’t know how to play with them, and I get angry easily when things don’t go my way. So I think it’s much better to leave it to the app than to have me play with it.

The parent went on and on about how great the online word-of-mouth was for the pet-raising app she was currently using.

In light of this, the teacher said the following.

The parents of today are of the generation that grew up using smartphones on a daily basis themselves. So many of them have the idea that they are safe if they leave it to the apps. They think it is more reasonable to have an app raise them than to raise themselves. They say, ‘It’s better to have an app play lullabies for them,’ or ‘It’s better to show them videos than for me to teach them words. Because of this base of thinking, they have a hard time accepting that there are many things in child-rearing that can’t be replaced by an app.

Depending on how you use them, apps can be great. But if used at the wrong age or in the wrong way, they can be a hindrance to development. The teacher is concerned about that.

However, the number of apps related to childcare is increasing every day, and countless apps have been introduced on childcare websites. It is natural for the developers to encourage this, since the more they are used, the more profitable they are. However, if parents are forced to dance around the idea, the children will be the ones to suffer the repercussions.

The teacher says, “Among parents, there are some who are particularly self-confident.

Among parents, it seems that those who lack self-confidence are more likely to rely on apps. Because they lack self-confidence, they rely on apps for everything. Once they start doing that, they will continue to rely on apps for a long time after that. It is a fact that a certain number of children who graduate from preschool but cannot escape from their smartphones have such parents.”

How children grow up is described in detail in “Reporto: Smartphone Parenting Destroys Children.

What teachers are now sounding the alarm about is not the smartphones and apps themselves, but the fact that parents do not properly understand their proper use. It is no exaggeration to say, however, that there are few opportunities to teach this.

Perhaps there is a need for more opportunities to teach these issues in more detail in “parenting programs” and “parenting classes” held by local governments and other organizations.