The Canadian Paediatric Society discourages exposure to screens for kids under two, saying there’s no indication it’s beneficial.
Yet many parents give their kids tablets and handheld devices to play with anyway, and researcher Cheryl Williams says companies like Fisher Price have started to catch on, inserting eye-catching ads for toys into their apps marketed at babies. She points out even if babies can’t speak, they can point to toys in a store and encourage their parents to buy them.
She says that 38-percent of children under two have used a tablet or smart phone, and 6-percent do so every day.
She says the toy companies are misleading parents into thinking the apps are educational, when in reality they’re just ads and the guidelines surrounding these apps need to change.
