A seventh-grade student recently set a shocking record for digital distraction by watching thousands of YouTube videos during his regular classes. The middle schooler managed to rack up an unbelievable 13,000 video views on his school device in just a three-month window. This extreme case highlights a growing problem with how educational tablets are managed in classrooms.
It also shows why parents are demanding stricter limits on what kids can access while sitting at their desks.
The student swipes through endless gaming videos using school equipment
Ben Warren, a seventh grader in Wichita, Kansas, logged the massive view count between December 2024 and February 2025. Instead of using his school iPad for learning, he spent his days swiping through short gaming clips. He primarily watched content about Fortnite, a popular video game that his parents explicitly not allowed him from playing at home.
By taking advantage of the school network, he easily bypassed those home restrictions. Math shows he averaged around 144 short videos every single day during that heavy viewing period.
His mother, Amy Warren, recently joined the local Board of Education and is now fighting to implement stronger controls on devices running software from Google and other tech partners in the district.
Other teenagers face similar struggles with extreme video viewing habits
Warren is certainly not the only student battling these digital distractions during class time. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, an anonymous tenth grader in Oregon managed to watch 200 videos in a single morning.
The situation gets even worse for some students who simply cannot put their screens down. Another teenager reportedly watched four straight hours of videos in one day during school hours. That specific case became so severe that the student had to enter a professional addiction treatment program at a children’s hospital to break the habit.
These alarming numbers show that schools need better systems to block addictive entertainment apps on devices meant strictly for studying.
