Irish Examiner view: Can we please stop blaming parents for everything? Thanks
Parents should certainly pay attention to the study linking screen use by their smallies with negative effects on their health. Picture: iStock
A study linking screen use among babies and toddlers with negative effects on children’s health and quality of life will come as another blow to already stretched parents. However, the message from the researchers is clear — while the findings are concerning, parents and caregivers should not be the focus of blame.
The comprehensive review of global peer-reviewed research points to a worrying list of potential harms associated with screen exposure during the earliest years of life.
These include reduced opportunities for bonding with caregivers, reduced play with peers, delayed language development, increased risk of overstimulation, difficulty sleeping, increased risk of childhood obesity, and increased reliance on devices — rather than parents and other caregivers — for emotional regulation.
These findings matter because the first few years of life are a time of extraordinary brain development. Experiences during this period help shape how children learn, communicate, form relationships, and develop physically and emotionally.
The study, carried out by academics from four UK universities, acknowledges the reality that digital screens are now woven into almost every aspect of modern life. From work and shopping to accessing essential services and staying connected with family and friends, screens are impossible to avoid. Unsurprisingly, parents’ screen time is linked to that of their children’s, but this is less a reflection of individual failings than of the environment in which families are trying to raise children.
Babies and toddlers are growing up in a world where screens dominate daily routines, not because parents have chosen this, but because society has built itself around it.
That is why the solution does not lie in another set of warnings aimed at exhausted mothers and fathers.
Instead, the researchers argue, society itself needs to rethink its relationship with screens — including smartphones, tablets, TVs, and game consoles — and make understanding adult screen-time habits and thresholds a priority, alongside revisiting guidance on children’s screen use.
Andrea Leadsom, founder of the 1,001 Critical Days Foundation, which commissioned the research, described the review as “a wake-up call”. If screens are posing risks to our youngest children, the responsibility for addressing those risks belongs to policymakers, technology companies, employers, and society as a whole.
The impact of ‘booming air tourism’ on rising rents should give pause to everyone involved in acting upon the Government’s National Tourism Policy Statement, published just six months ago.
As reported in this title yesterday, the European clean transport and energy group T&E estimates that Ireland could see air tourism-linked rent increases of €250 per year by 2031. That is the largest projected rent increase among the European tourism destinations it analysed, and comes on top of rent pressures driven by housing shortages and other factors. It also sits alongside the well-documented and growing environmental costs associated with air travel.
T&E is now calling for a new EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy that would seek to reduce international arrivals in destinations already under pressure.
Yet Ireland, along with Spain and Greece, is actively pursuing policies designed to expand air travel and attract more overseas visitors.
We live on an island and do not have realistic alternatives to air travel if we wish to sustain a tourism industry that is economically important and supports thousands of jobs.
The difficulty lies elsewhere. The Government’s tourism strategy aims to substantially increase the number of overseas visitors, bringing annual arrivals to between 7.5m and 8m by 2031. That is an estimated 1m more than the 6.6m recorded in 2024, and, given Ireland’s geography, almost all of those additional visitors will arrive by air.
There are many positive aspects to the Government’s strategy. It seeks to spread tourism more evenly across the regions, extend the visitor season beyond the summer months, and promote more sustainable business practices in the sector. It also seeks to grow the home holiday market.
However, the emphasis on increasing overseas visitor numbers by 15% over five years, as well as increasing tourism revenue, appears increasingly difficult to reconcile with wider environmental objectives, and the mounting evidence that the costs of ever-expanding air tourism are being borne by local communities through higher housing costs, as well as the impact on the climate.
If sustainable tourism is to mean more than a slogan, and if we are to safeguard the sector from a future EU strategy that might restrict tourism air travel, growth in visitor numbers cannot remain a key measure of success.
The new law making it harder for employers to force people to retire before age 66 is a welcome reform. The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act, which came into effect yesterday, allows workers with a contractual retirement age of 65 to request to remain in their jobs. Employers who refuse will have to justify each case on objective grounds.
Given recent trends, many older workers are likely to seize the opportunity to extend their working lives.
The number of people aged 65 and above in employment has risen almost four-fold in the past two decades, from about 35,000 in 2006 to 135,000 by the end of 2025. Economic necessity is one reason. The State pension is not available until a person reaches 66, while many worry that retirement incomes will struggle to keep pace with the cost of living.
Financial need is only part of the story. Many people want to remain engaged with their careers, colleagues, and the sense of purpose, stimulation, and social interaction that work provides.
The new law protects some workers, and only until the age of 66, but it is an important first step towards recognising that growing numbers of people are ready, willing, and able to continue working into their late 60s and 70s.
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