Nearly 40% of Toddlers Using Smartphones, Tablets

by Burke Speaker | October 29, 2013 9:20 am

New research shows that 38% of kids aged two and under use smartphones and tablets such as iPhones (AAPL[1]) or Kindles (AMZN[2]) for playing games or watching films.

That number has increased by nearly 20% over the last year.

The data was compiled by a survey commissioned by U.S. group Common Sense Media and electronic learning experts VTech.

The survey also showed that one in three toddlers using smartphones and other devices do so before they are even able to talk.

From the Daily Mail:[3]

The survey results showed the speed at which mobiles and other gadgets are becoming a fact of life, even for babies, when they were compared to a similar study that was carried out in 2011.

Back then, 38 percent of under-eights had used a phone or a Kindle. Now that same statistic applies to the under-twos.

Jim Steyer, director of Common Sense Media told the newspaper that “kids that cannot even talk will walk up to a TV screen and try to swipe it like an iPad or an iPhone.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of two should have no screen time at all.

The study — ‘Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, 2013 — was conducted as a national survey of 1,463 parents with children under the age of eight years old.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/10/nearly-40-toddlers-using-smartphones-tablets/

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