Too much screen time has turned my daughter into Gollum – and it’s my fault

My daughter Penny’s tablet has become her own ‘precious’. We have to make sure our children are not dependent on technology

Chesterton: 'The iPad encourages deception and a split personality' CREDIT: Claudine Hartzel

George Chesterton
© Telegraph.co.uk

Something odd happened when I was reading my ten-year-old daughter Penelope a bedtime story the other day. It was what you might call a “meta” moment. Earlier that afternoon we’d had another argument about her iPad, a depressingly common confrontation that always provides a picture of your uselessness as a parent.

As I read her a passage from JRR Tolkien in which the wizard Gandalf describes how Gollum was transformed by his dependency to the malign Ring, I paused to explain what a brilliantly vivid depiction of addiction it was. Then I understood exactly what was happening.