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A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

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Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#121

Post by rhizome »

seclorum wrote: post #57
veidr wrote: post #48

I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…

We don't have a TV in our house, but we do have iPads. I would argue that an iPad is a much better TV - given the right app, it can really help a child sit down, focus, and learn things under their own steam, without that Brave New World programming that comes from most TV sets. Its a matter of balance, though. My kids get tons of time with the blocks and marbles (we play "kügel-bahn" like mad in our Austrian househo…

it can really help a child sit down, focus, and learn things under their own steam, without that Brave New World programming that comes from most TV sets.

Hyperfocus is a symptom of ADHD.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#122

Post by pbhjpbhj »

grannyg00se wrote: post #82
veidr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sounds like your son is doing great, that's wonderful. :) I concede your point that the iPad can stretch/blur the notion of what a "game" is, in interesting ways. Although I am inclined to limit my kids' "screen time" (to zero, at two years old), I would never choose to limit my kids' "book time",. But perhaps my thinking about it is too coarse, since iPad apps can be hybrids of both, or combine their attribute…

"But perhaps my thinking about it is too coarse, since iPad apps can be hybrids of both." Right. How would your screen time limitation work if the screen was being used to read a book? And the book may be even more interactive than a traditional book. Then there's a line that can get crossed where the book has now become a game. But even then, if it's educational and informative as a book is, why limit that just beca…

>And the book may be even more interactive than a traditional book. //

Books are not interactive. Isn't that the point, they're supposed to be entirely passive objects used solely to feed ideas to the imagination/consciousness/memory.

>why limit that just because it's on a screen? //

To encourage the child to develop interaction in the real world first.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#123

Post by JeremiahNunn »

damoncali wrote: post #14
ja27 wrote: post #3

Generally good advice. Play-testing with young kids is a big help. I also don't like an app that has the kid shake the iPad (or iPhone) a lot. I'm torn on the "Don't trick my kids into buying stuff" one. I've seen a lot of crappy apps (and even well-built Smurfy-Smurf ones) that are just funnels to in-app purchases. But I've also seen parents leave outraged reviews because a developer dares to have in-app purchases f…

You don't have kids, do you? Small kids don't really understand money. When a parent downloads a "free" game, they expect it to be free. When their kid starts crying because they can't do anything without buying something in app, it pisses the parent off. Or, once burned, you have this scenario: "Can I have this game, daddy? It says free!" "No, honey, it costs money". "But then why does it say free?" "Because they're…

I have a 3 and 4 year old, just for disclosure. Some games are free, limited demos. And the in-app purchase is for the full game. I like this mechanism, trying before I buy. Don't punish developers for being good people; just because a kid app has in-app purchase, doesn't necessarily mean it's a scummy attempt to trick kids into spending their parents money.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#124

Post by pbhjpbhj »

thibaut_barrere wrote: post #75
rsl7 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 is too young to be doing it regularly, but once in a while is fine. It's the passivity, the two-dimensionality, setting them up with a need for constant entertainment. Also, let's not pretend it's ok because it's educational. Everything is educational when you're 2. You get a better education making a salad chopping cucumber and carrots with a crinkle cutter than playing an iPad game. My kids are 11 and 8.

On salad chopping vs iPad game: why not do both? My son prepares tiramisus, sushis etc with us, and he watched the recipes on the iPad :) Then I definitely agree on the "constant entertainment" point: I'm doing my best to ensure he knows to "do nothing" a bit each day. Over-stimulating is something I'm very careful about!

>I'm doing my best to ensure he knows to "do nothing" a bit each day. //

Could you expand on this and be specific please?

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#125

Post by pbreit »

veidr wrote: post #48

I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…

> don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all?

I'd be surprised if there were (m)any people who think a 2 year-old should not use an iPad "at all".

I guess the jury is still out since my children are 6 and 22 months but so far the iPad seems like a spectacular device for them...certainly better than books. My son has been playing memory games, alphabet, numbers, spanish, songs, angry birds, plants v zombies, drawing, facetime, pattern matching, etc, etc, etc. I'm not sure how this is going to end up badly.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#126

Post by tedmiston »

adriand wrote: post #65

I actually had to get a refund from Apple for an in-app purchase my son made while using Talking Tom Cat (I since deleted that app and turned off in-app purchases). I've got two kids and what I would add to the observations listed in this article are as follows (these apply to any app that is intended for kids, but also apps where a significant section of the userbase might be kids - for example, my four-year-old is…

> 6. I don't know how difficult this is from a development perspective, but if possible, make the app resistant to having non-active fingers touching the screen while active fingers are attempting to use it. Kids will often grasp devices, especially phones, in such a way that fingers from (say) their left hand are touching the screen, and on some apps this causes them to cease responding to touch events from their other (right) hand.

To get at the "raw" multitouch taps and gestures programmatically in a custom manner is complex to handle a case where the user is going to be "resting" fingers in a random area of the screen intermittently or for an extended period of time (i.e., a continuous gesture).

One solution is to put nothing interactive in that area (effectively ignore all taps / gestures), and that's quite easy to implement. I haven't used many apps targeted to children, so I don't know whether that's realistic from a user perspective.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#127

Post by Tooluka »

ArtB wrote: post #67
S_A_P wrote: post #25

I think in app purchases for apps targeting users under 13 is a really bad idea. Even if there isn't some dark premise behind it, I feel like an asshole every time I tell my son "no" I wont buy you extra {whatever} for your game at just 2.99. Kids games should be reasonably priced(0-5 dollars) and not monetize with ads or upsells.

Sorry how is that even remotely reasonably priced? It has a limited market, that can't buy their product, that is hard to make engaging and appropriate. Either be willing to pay $15 a pop, be willing to accept in product advertising, in product upselling, are really basic (ie non custom story book artwork), or that they shouldn't exist at all. Frankly, sounds like you are asking just too much.

15$ for quality product is ok. Chaptered games/applications (iWork etc.) are ok. ADs are not. IAPs are not.

This should be tattooed on every single iOS dev.

PS: I actually wish there would be at least few 30-60$ games in the store. And not those crappy ports of gamepad/mouse games (shooters etc.) with unplayable controls. Or some good, but very old, not so polished ports of ports of classic games (FFT). It would be nice to play some great western RPG, with interesting story (not that boring save the world stuff), it should be turn based to adjust to device controls, some good graphics (not like those Top games from store) - look up Bastion on the PC, THIS is how AAA iPad games should look like. And no sequels. Please.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#128

Post by r00fus »

stungeye wrote: post #102
adriand wrote: post #65

I actually had to get a refund from Apple for an in-app purchase my son made while using Talking Tom Cat (I since deleted that app and turned off in-app purchases). I've got two kids and what I would add to the observations listed in this article are as follows (these apply to any app that is intended for kids, but also apps where a significant section of the userbase might be kids - for example, my four-year-old is…

A continuation of #7: I've seen ad-supported apps targeted to children that include kid-inappropriate ads. I had a 7 year old recently ask me about dieting and weight-loss strategies because of an in-game "one weird trick to lose weight" ad.

I just follow the rule: no ad-based apps, ever.

If I can't buy it or get it free without ads, it doesn't go on the iPad (I test with my iPhone if I'm unsure), and thus my kid isn't exposed to it (device is locked down tight to prevent purchases/etc, and I sync the apps on there after they've been reviewed by me).

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#129

Post by jes5199 »

rhizome wrote: post #121
seclorum wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't have a TV in our house, but we do have iPads. I would argue that an iPad is a much better TV - given the right app, it can really help a child sit down, focus, and learn things under their own steam, without that Brave New World programming that comes from most TV sets. Its a matter of balance, though. My kids get tons of time with the blocks and marbles (we play "kügel-bahn" like mad in our Austrian househo…

it can really help a child sit down, focus, and learn things under their own steam, without that Brave New World programming that comes from most TV sets. Hyperfocus is a symptom of ADHD.

A single sentence is not enough evidence to diagnose someone with a mental illness.

Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

#130

Post by beatle »

feralchimp wrote: post #86
veidr wrote: post #48

I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…

> don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all? > My own kid won't be here for a few more months, so I'm not preaching; just honestly asking. > Shouldn't kids of that age, instead of learning in-game physics, be learning real physics? Like with balls, marbles, and blocks, running and falling down, and not with animated honeypots and flying unicorns? You are in fact preachin…

> Please do not give your future 2-year-old marbles to learn physics with. Choking hazard. Harder to swallow an iPad.

I don't care if I get down voted but this made me laugh so hard.

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