It's funny how those same billionaires who sell these devices, do not give their children devices until the age of 14.

PS to parents: give your child a toy or a book not a tablet ffs.

I agree for age of 3-6 years, but until age 14 is ridiculous.

Not all devices are equally bad.

I've been happily learning to code my own video games on Intel 486 PC in QuickBasic since late elementary school (age 10), and yes, I played outdoors with other kids too.

Before I had PC of my own, I was making them on paper (game design and mechanics, not literal code).

The difference there is that you had a difficult, meaningful, constructive experience instead of one designed to just addict you. Even though both were running on von Neumann machines.

I think there is a meaningful difference between an Intel 486 and a portable device like a tablet, especially if the former is not connected to the internet (or is connected to the internet as it was circa 1995). I think it could be fine and even beneficial to give a kid a desktop computer to write games using QuickBasic, and at the same time very harmful to give them a tablet.

You brought me back to hand-drawing platformer puzzle levels for my fictional game as a kid. Good times.

Another thing to blame on the billionaires then. Soon they will become like gods, feared and blamed for intentionally causing plagues and famines when people dont appease them enough.

They certainly have more affect on our lives than any "traditional" god. Apparently, reducing their tax exposure brings 10 years of good harvest.