Toddlers Are Going to iPad Rehab Now
Quick, quick: something we can all feel superior about for a few minutes! Something related to parenting, or a laughable, totally reprehensible lack thereof! Specifically, in the form of one UK parent who entered her four-year-old daughter into a “technology addiction” rehab when, after letting a developing child play with an iPad for four hours every day, her kid was “distressed and inconsolable” when the iPad was taken away.
Which sort of sounds like a kid having too much toy access, then having trouble adjusting when that access is revoked. Which is pretty regular, I think? And they’ll get over it, because they’re a child? But then, what do I know about kids.
Per the experts (or really just someone named Dr. Richard Graham), these sorts of cases are on the rise and can lead to “dangerous” long-term issues for young children. “They can’t cope and become addicted, reacting with tantrums and uncontrollable behavior when they are taken away,” Graham explains. “Then as they grow older, the problem only gets worse. Even the most shy kids, when they hit their teens, suddenly want to become sociable and popular.”
You can say that again, Dr. G! But, lest this scary new trend seem totally irreversible, there is one option: paying attention to your child for a few hours a day paying Dr. Graham $25,000 for a month-long “digital detox” program. Everything’s going to be OK.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
