I look forward to the TOADY (Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young children) worst toy of the year award given out each year by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood with a horrified fascination. What could they have been thinking? The CCFC are the folks who exposed the fraudulent claims of “Your Baby Can Read” and “Baby Einstein.”

And this year’s winner: the AT&T U-verse app by BabyFirst. It is bad enough to encourage kids to stare at one screen. This app, incredibly marketed at kids ZERO to five, is intended to have them watch two at once. Children need to be interacting with people and using their imagination and curiosity. They need to be exercising. The last thing a toddler needs is another reason to turn into a couch potato.

It’s the fourth year in a row that voters awarded the dreaded TOADY to a screen-based toy for infants and toddlers. Parents, educators, and health professionals are clearly fed up with the escalating push to insinuate screens into every aspect of our youngest children’s lives. Kate Snyder of Burgin, KY captured the feeling of many TOADY voters, “Anytime I see screen technology marketed to infants, it automatically gets my vote!”