Why in the world does a 4 year old need an iPad? Whatever happened to Barbie dolls or playhouses? An iPad for a 4 year old???? For goodness sake, no wonder society is so screwed up (shout out to those Twitter whores like the Kardashians). Do you really want your 4 year old daughter trolling around the internet?
My 1 year old has a first gen iPad, and my four year old has a 4th gen.
Here's the thing, they barely use them.
Last week was the first time my 1 year old ever used her iPad, on a 4 hour flight to visit family (at least I sent it with my wife, I'm not sure if they ended up using it or not). They will be flying back tomorrow and may use it again, then it will go back on the shelf and probably not be touched again for months.
My 4 year old has all of her music on her iPad and we use it with a sleep timer to play some music for her at night while she is going to sleep (if she asks for it, some nights she doesn't want music). She also has movies on it for the plane flights, and every now and then for long car rides. If she watches TV or movies at home it is usually in our living room with me, her mother, or all of us as a family. I would say maybe once or twice a month she might play with some games, coloring apps, or educational apps on it.
Both iPads have passcodes on them which the kids do not know, so they can't even use the iPads without their mother or I unlocking them.
YouTube no longer works on the 1st gen, and I have it blocked on the 4th gen. Parental controls are used on both to block Safari as well as installing or deleting apps, etc. Even if that got turned off somehow they do not know the iTunes password so she would not be able to get apps on her own.
My kids have over an acre of land to play on, a large swingset, a dog, and many many toys (including Barbie Dolls and playhouse/kitchen/food etc).
Do I feel that some parents allow their kids to spend too much time on phones/tablets, sure. But I also feel that some allow kids to spend too much time watching TV or playing video games. And, I even feel that there are even some kids that spend too much time reading or playing. I feel that kids should have a good balance of all of these things.
But I also realize that this is my OPINION, and parents have the right to raise their kids however they want as long as they aren't breaking any laws.