Give them access to only two things: Amazon Kindle and/or Libby (no audiobooks) for learning how to read, and a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck.

The game console should be loaded up with puzzle games like Crossniq+ or Tetris or Pokémon Shuffle, platformers like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Lucky’s Tale, and text-heavy and child-friendly RPGs like Pokémon or Squid Odyssey.

If you get a Nintendo Switch, subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online so your child can play emulated games from older consoles. The parental controls work with the emulation library IIRC and old RPGs will encourage your kid to learn to read them.

If you get a Steam Deck, it’s more complicated and there’s no parental control integration, but you can pirate the old console games and hand-pick which games are loaded onto the console in the first place.

I know you probably think this is just more screen time, but video games are far more mentally stimulating than purely passive TV/Movie content, healthier than YouTube for the 1-7 year old age group, and a hell of a lot healthier than TikTok.

Speaking of which, last piece of advice; If TikTok or a service similar to - or more addictive than - it still exists when your kid gets old enough for that kind of thing, don’t let them use it. It’s debatable how much dopamine addiction is a real thing, but TikTok is a seriously bad influence. You know the “boyfriend with a motorcycle and intentions that are most definitely not honorable” trope? TikTok is set up so that idiots who almost get themselves killed doing stupid things are given the biggest audiences by the sensationalist algorithm, and I know the peer pressure argument is iffy, but I can’t exactly trust idiot teenagers to not kill themselves trying to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon powder in a single gulp (yes, that could actually cause them to choke and suffocate) and I definitely don’t trust a platform that acts as a digital version of that one dumbass “friend” you had in high school who kept getting you into trouble by daring you to be a total yahoo in public.

Hopefully this helps, there’s no instruction manual for raising kids but don’t limit their experiences purely based on feelings. You’re right about video content but games and books (even comic books) are not at all the same in their effects on kid’s development.