Should Parents Allow Tots to Play with Their iPads and Smartphones?

The four-year-old Brit girl who was suffering from iPad addiction turned out to be just the iceberg. Days after the story broke, other parents are coming out and relating to media similar problems they are having with their kids even less than 4.

One such tyke is three-year-old Dolly Sibary who spends four hours daily on the iPad, the New York Daily News reported. Dolly's mother, Shona, 42, admits it is her fault why her youngest kid got so hooked on the tablet at such a young age because she ditched the Play-Doh that her three older children played with when they were Dolly's age in favour of high-tech toys

"With the demands of family life it's easier to plonk her in front of a screen, which I do regularly, than try to entertain her ... My theory is, it's better that a child sit quietly in the supermarket trolley using an iPad than runs around screaming. I do worry about it though because she is either out of the house (at preschool) or on a screen at home," the daily quoted Mrs Sibary.

Gemma Finney, the mother of four-year-old Oscar, reported that her son throws a massive tantrum when the tablet is taken away from him. She said that she wants her kids to enjoy normal childhood and play outside in the fresh air, but is helpless because of the pervasiveness of technology in her kids' lives.

Psychologists said a good benchmark to determine if kids are suffering from technology addiction is if they spend over 24 to 30 hours weekly playing on iPads and smartphones, mood swings and aggressive behaviour once the device is removed from them.

While Mark Griffiths, a psychology professor at Nottingham Trent University, draws a line when it comes to using the word addict on four-year-olds, he stressed, "As a parent, the idea of not being able to control your toddler's screen time is ludicrous ... If a child is spending too long on an iPad, then this is purely the parents' fault," he said.

A report cited by Mail Online blamed parents for the device addiction of their kids since the average dad or mum allow their child to use the Internet when the tyke reaches three which goes up to four or more hours a day.

The study by Netmum also found that 1 in 20 children admitted to arranging a secret meeting with someone they met online, 25 per cent visited eating disorder sites, another 25 per cent soft porn sites and 1 in 25 have sent graphic photos of themselves.

Besides parents, party to be blamed for the phenomenon is tech firms which market their products to encourage customers to buy and use more devices.

For instance, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, said that the company sold almost 20 million iPads, but while it cannibalise some Macs, growth in tablet sales and use benefit the Mac in the long term.

Slobhan Freegard, co-founder of Netmums, warned that with more Internet and device exposure for kids at a younger age, "We are raising a generation of technical geniuses - but at what cost?"