What should you look for in an app for a young child?
Why ads are a different problem for young children
Because young children cannot reliably distinguish advertising from content — the developmental research on this is consistent. A tap on an ad is not an informed choice at that age.
Interstitial ads are also where accidental purchases and unwanted installs come from. An ad-free app removes the entire category of problem rather than managing it.
Screen versus paper
Both have value and they are not interchangeable. Paper gives resistance, smell, mess and permanence — genuinely part of the developmental experience. Screens offer unlimited undo, which lowers the fear of ruining something, and no cleanup.
Most useful as an addition rather than a replacement.
How much screen time
Guidance from paediatric bodies emphasises what the time contains and whether an adult is involved, rather than a single number. Creating something is a different activity from passive watching, even at equal minutes.
The recommendations that recur across guidelines are specific and easy to apply: no screens in the hour before sleep, and no screens during meals.
The part that multiplies everything
An adult nearby, at least some of the time. The most consistent finding in this whole field is that a grown-up talking with the child about what they are doing multiplies the value of the activity. Asking "why did you pick that one?" turns tapping into thinking.
Our iOS app for exactly this. Runs on your device — no account, no tracking.