Labour MP Emily Darlington raised concerns with the UK government about TT Rockstars, a maths app used in primary schools, saying it rewards children for "length of time rather than quality of time spent online" and could harm their development.
TT Rockstars allows children to compete with classmates for virtual coins and themed characters. Darlington told the Commons Science Committee on Tuesday that gamification leads children to spend hours online to earn rewards, creating conflict over screen time and pressure to perform against peers.
Bruno Reddy, founder of Maths Circle, the company behind TT Rockstars, said he shares concerns about screen time. He stated the company discourages long sessions, with games designed to be "deliberately short" and characters reminding children to take breaks. Reddy said the recommended guideline is three minutes, four or five times a week. In September, he noted, a typical child played on three days for about six minutes each time.
From 24 November, Reddy said every school using the app will have curfews, daily time limits switched on by default, and leaderboards switched off as default.
Early years education minister Paul Waugh told the committee that "gamification isn't the way to learn" and called it "profit driven". He said EdTech should support teachers, not replace them.
Charlotte Ashton, co-founder of Generation Focus, which campaigns for smartphone-free schools, said there is "very little evidence" most digital learning tools improve learning and "growing evidence they can be harmful".
TT Rockstars and a companion app called Numbots are used in 17,000 schools and over 100,000 households, according to Maths Circle.