Smartphone apps for babies and young children have become so popular in Japan (as in many other advanced countries) that the Japan Pediatric Association is launching an ad campaign warning parents that smartphones are bad babysitters and pacifiers.

It became normal for Japanese parents to use their smartphone to entertain and keep quiet their upset babies and toddlers – the digital education way, but not a recommended way. Japan’s pediatricians remind moms and dads that young children learn and develop much better the analog way, by interacting with real people, not screens.

Image: REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE