MP warns times-tables app rewards time spent over quality, as firm announces school limits
A Labour MP has warned that the times-tables app TT Rockstars and similar apps could harm children's development, because they reward how long children play rather than how well they play.
Emily Darlington, the MP for Milton Keynes Central, raised the concerns at the Commons Science Committee, a Westminster committee of MPs looking into the impact of screen time on children's brain development.
The founder of the firm behind TT Rockstars, Bruno Reddy, said that from 24 November every school will have a curfew and a daily time limit switched on. Ranking tables, known as leaderboards, will be switched off by default.
The firm's guidance to schools is three minutes of play, four or five times a week. In September, a typical TT Rockstars child played on three days, for about six minutes each time.
Maths Circle says TT Rockstars and Numbots are used in 17,000 schools and more than 100,000 households.
In the game, children can compete with classmates for virtual coins, and for rock-star themed characters and outfits. Schools using the app can set a curfew to stop children playing too early. The company's parents' page says that after 30 minutes of play on any day, a message appears on the screen suggesting the player log off and take a break.
The debate over the app is not new. In written evidence to Parliament published in 2023, a parent, Mrs C Roche, said that after one year of near-daily use, TT Rock Stars proved ineffective in teaching her child his times tables.
