Heather du Plessis-Allan: The screens are the problem

I don't know if you remember - but not long ago on the show we had a debate about screen time and how bad it is for kids.

The question we were asking is - are we all just having a moral panic over screens, or are they as bad as the experts say they are?

And I think we’ve just got more evidence that the latter is true - that screens are a particularly pernicious problem of our age for the little ones.

Teachers are saying there are kids turning up at 5, sometimes 6, at school - and they just can't put sentences together. One teacher said a 6-year-old might say, for example, 'Me go pee' instead of 'I need the toilet'.

And frankly, that's pretty alarming for a 6-year-old. That is what my 2-year-old talks like, a 6-year-old should be way past that situation.

The teacher said that they had been teaching for 24 years, and they've never seen this low level of language. And what they’re putting it down to is too much screen time. Just too much TV, too much iPad.

And apparently, it's gotten worse since Covid, where screens became baby-sitters during lockdown and parents haven’t snapped out of it.

I recently spoke to a grandmother who doesn’t think 3 hours of TV a day - on multiple days - is a bad thing for a toddler. And obviously, that's a bad thing.

The problem with that is no one’s talking to the kid for three hours, or reading them a book, or showing them how to properly structure a sentence about wanting to go to the bathroom.

I have no idea what’s going on here with parents if they don't understand that this is a problem, I don't know how you fix it if it isn't obvious to parents that their child, at 6, isn't talking properly.

But teachers are right to feel frustrated at this, this is not their job. 

I argue a lot of stuff about what they need to do in the classroom - but this is not their job. They're right to expect a 5-year-old to turn up at school knowing how to string sentences together. This is squarely on parents.

The evidence is now overwhelming that too much screen time is bad for kids - and if we're being honest about it, parents have known this since the 1980s.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't know if you remember, but not long ago
on the show, we had a debate about screen time
and how bad it is for kids. And the question
that we were asking is are we all just having
a gigantic moral panic about screens or are screens actually
as bad as the experts tell us that they are.
And I think we've got more evidence that Yep, the
latter is true. Screens are a really particularly pernicious problem

(00:23):
of our age for the little ones and frankly for
the adults as well, but let's focus on the little one.
So teachers are saying that there are kids turning up
at five, sometimes six at school who can't even put
sentences together. So an example from one teacher is maybe
a six year old might say me go P instead
of I need the toilet. Now, frankly, that's pretty alarming

(00:45):
for a six year old. That is what my two
year old talks like, so a six year old should
be way past that situation. The teacher said that they
had been teaching for twenty four years and never seen
this low level of language, and what they are putting
it down to is too much screen time, just too
much TV, too much iPad and apparently it's worse since COVID,
where screens became babysitters during lockdowns and parents haven't snapped

(01:07):
out of it, And this stuff is happening. And I
recently spoke to a grandmother who doesn't think that three
hours a day of TV on multiple days is a
bad thing for a toddler. Obviously, it's a bad thing
for a toddler. The problem with that is no one
is talking to that kid for three hours, or reading
them a book, or showing them how you properly structure
a sentence enabled in order to be able to go

(01:29):
to the bathroom. Now, I have no idea what the
hell is going on here with parents. If they don't
understand that this is a problem, I don't know how
you fix it if it isn't obvious to parents that
their child at six is not talking properly. But teachers
are right, I think, to feel frustrated by this. This
is not their job. I mean teachers, you know, I

(01:51):
argue a lot of stuff about what they need to
do in the classroom, but this is not their job.
They are right to expect that a five year old
who turns up at school can actually string sentences together.
This is squarely on parents. The evidence is now overwhelming
that too much screen time is bad for kids, and actually,
if we're honest about it, parents have really known this
since the nineteen eighties at least, haven't they. For more

(02:13):
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