Fisher-Price's latest gift to new parents is a bouncy seat for babies that is designed to put an iPad in front of a newborn's face. Of course, this product has parents, doctors and child advocates raging mad.

An Internet petition to remove the Apptivity Seat from the market has already gotten over 5,000 signatures, and Fisher-Price doesn't understand why people are freaking out.



The Newborn-to-Toddler Apptivity Seat for iPad is described by the company as a "grow-with-me seat for baby that's soothing, entertaining and has a touch of technology, too." At $80 on the Fisher-Price website, the Apptivity Seat puts some hanging toys and a mirror within the child's reach. But the twist is that the Seat allows parents to replace that mirror with an iPad.

"There’s no evidence that babies benefit from screen time and some evidence that it might be harmful," says the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), a Boston-based nonprofit devoted to campaigning against the commercialization of childhood who launched the online petition against the Apptivity Seat.

On its website, Fisher-Price claims that babies who use the Apptivity Seat in parallel with various Fisher-Price iPad apps will benefit from it. These apps are said to feature "soft, soothing sounds and nature scenes, black-and-white images, and high-contrast patterns that help develop eye-tracking skills."

That is highly suspect, according to the CCFC. "The only thing babies will learn is to keep their eyes on a screen--instead of tracking what's going on around them," CCFC writes on its website. And it could be harmful in other ways, too. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises that children under the age of two should avoid being exposed to any kind of electronic screen altogether.

"A child's brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens," the AAP says. They also caution that studies have shown excessive use of multimedia devices by children to lead to many issues such as attention problems, difficulty at school, obesity, and more.



Fisher-Price's parent company, Mattel said the seat is a "niche" product that is the victim of an Internet smear campaign:

For more than eighty years, Fisher-Price has taken great pride in providing thoughtful features and solutions for parents that we’ve identified through research. We know parents have different needs, which is why we strive to offer them a variety of choices for baby products, like infant seats, so they can choose the one that best suits their lifestyle.

We want to clarify that we do not position the Apptivity Seat, or any of our other infant seats, as educational products for children. It is unfortunate that factual omissions about the product, such as the time-out feature that only allows for 10 minutes of activity with our app before requiring a manual reset, and parent reviews from those who have purchased the product that show strong parent involvement and support, have not been accurately characterized in recent reports.

The Apptivity Seat is a niche product that is only available online. Though we knew the product was not for everyone – we have over a dozen seats from which parents can choose – we wanted to offer it as yet another option for those parents who want to the added feature of engaging in age-appropriate content with their children.

Unfortunately, the company's response failed to address the critiques aimed at the new seat. What do you think of the Apptivity Seat? If you're a new parent, would this product be something you would put your child in?