Sometimes it's impossible to tear children away from their iPad.
But a new study suggests that children's screen time can actually be used for good.
Researchers have found that children learn just as much from interactive media, such as iPad or smartphone apps, as they do from human face-to-face interaction.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) compared how well children learnt from an iPad app to how well they learnt speaking in-person with an instructor.
They found no statistical difference in the amount that children learnt from each source.
Their findings have now been published in Frontiers in Psychology.
'Parents currently have a fairly negative view of interactive media,' said senior author Susan Birch, a UBC psychology professor.
'When parents are asked the top three reasons they give their children a mobile device, learning is not one of them.
'What our research tells us is that, while interactive media can never replace face-to-face interaction, parents might not recognise the potential role that it can play in education and learning.'
The researchers asked two groups of 43 children aged four to eight to play a game either with a human instructor or on an iPad.
The game asked the young participants to guess how many of the children would know different facts about animals.
When the researchers quizzed the children on their knowledge, each group showed the same amount of learning, regardless of how they had been taught.
Co-author Siba Ghrear, a PhD psychology student at UBC, suggests that parents can use interactive technologies like iPads to complement their school-based learning.
'The iPad is a good tool for parents because it's portable and convenient, and it can teach children wherever they may be, whether it's on the bus or in the mall,' she said.
Previous research has found that TV and video are ineffective for some types of learning, but little research has looked into interactive devices such as smartphones or iPads.
'What this shows is not all screen time is bad,' said Professor Birch, noting that 80 per cent of iPad apps are targeted at children.
'This was one of the first pieces of evidence that interactive media can be beneficial for children.'