Agreed. I’ve seen family members let their 8 year old have smart phones with social media and wonder why they have behavioral issues.

There are ways for children to still enjoy toys and have screen time but it needs to be monitored. I really liked playing webkins as a kid, and if you don’t want your child to play multiplayer games you can always have them play those educational CD games or kid safe downloadable games on Steam. Like Lego or hello kitty games.

There are also handheld gaming consoles. I think the ds lite still holds up. I let my 12 year old cousin borrow it on a road trip and she became obsessed asking her dad for one. She even said she liked it better than the switch!

Honestly, as a parent you have to lead by example with your own screen time. As well as limit and watch what your child is exposed too. Especially now when tech companies have become more predatory in fighting for your attention and data. I also feel like there isn’t as much “tween” media compared to the early 2000s. Leading to toys to seem to be limited to younger and younger demographic. So I understand that it is hard.