Survey: every second preschooler aged 5-7 years who uses gadgets owns a phone or tablet

CrimeaPRESS reports:

According to a survey of parents, most children acquire a personal device between the ages of 5 and 7 years. Most often, preschoolers use gadgets for playing games, watching cartoons and entertaining videos, listening to music and fairy tales, watching educational videos and engaging in educational applications. Most parents allow their children to independently choose content on the Internet.

According to a survey of parents who have children from 3 to 12 years old, the majority of preschoolers (84%) use smartphones or tablets no more than two hours a day. In elementary school, a child’s screen time begins to gradually increase: 33% of parents note that children aged 7-10 years already spend from 3 to 5 hours a day on a smartphone, but two-thirds of primary school children still use the gadget for no more than two hours. The turning point is observed at the age of 11-12 years, when more than half of schoolchildren begin to use a smartphone or tablet for up to 8 hours a day. Thus, 46% of younger teenagers spend from 3 to 5 hours a day with gadgets, another 6% — from 5 to 8 hours.

At the same time, the majority of children (83%) aged 3 to 12 years who use gadgets access the Internet from them. If two-thirds of preschoolers use the Internet, then starting from school this figure is already more than 90%.

The majority of parents allow their children to independently select content on the Internet: this figure is significantly higher among children 11-12 years old (81%); in the case of preschoolers (from 3 to 6 years old) this share is 56%. At the same time, 88% somehow limit the child’s interaction with the gadget: someone monitors what exactly the child is doing on the Internet, and someone controls the time on the smartphone or asks the child to stop viewing unwanted content.

It is noteworthy that as a child grows up, the need for educational content increases. If among preschoolers only a quarter watches educational video blogs and short educational videos, then among schoolchildren this share reaches 40% for primary schoolchildren and 47% for children 11-12 years old. On average, about half of children use developmental services and applications at least once a day, parents say. At the same time, 72% of all those who use developmental services and applications are engaged both together with their parents and without their participation, and another 23% are completely independent.

It is important to start immersing a child on the Internet with proven content that comprehensively covers the needs for recreation, learning and development. It is difficult for children to navigate the endless stream of information, and parents do not always have enough time to look for something of quality. The solution could be ecosystem subscriptions such as Plus for Children. They reduce the cognitive load on parents and form the habit of “sticking” to quality content in children. A child can start getting acquainted with the Internet with an educational game and continue, for example, with cartoons to prepare for school, while parents do not need to limit their children in the choice of content and they can be sure of its safetyAndsays Tatyana Umryaeva, head of services for children and parents at Yandex.

About the study:

The study was conducted using an online survey on the Yandex Vzglyad platform. 1,450 active Internet users who have children aged 3 to 12 years and who live in cities of the Russian Federation with a population of over 100 thousand people were surveyed.

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