Tuned in two-year-olds
p2pnet news view Kids & Kartels | Advertising:- It’s not just teenagers who’re wired up and tuned in – it’s babies in diapers as well, says a new report.
“A booming market of videotapes and DVDs aimed at infants one to 18 months, the launching of the first TV show specifically targeting children as young as 12 months, and a multi-million dollar industry selling computer games and even special keyboard toppers for children as young as nine months old” – that’s what’s available, says Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers.
The first publicly released national study of media use among children from six months to six years old, it was released yesterday by the the Kaiser Family Foundation and says many kids aged six and under are active computer users, continuing:
“About half (48%) of all children six and under have used a computer; by the time they are in the four- to six-year-old range, seven out of ten (70%) have used a computer. Indeed, every day, more than one in four (27%) four- to six-year-olds uses a computer.
“Those who use a computer spend an average of just over an hour at the keyboard (1:04). More than half of all children in this age group (56%) have used a computer by themselves (without sitting in their parent’s lap); 64% know how to use a mouse to point and click; 40% can load a CD-ROM by themselves; 37% have turned the computer on by themselves; and 17% have sent email with help from a parent.
“In fact, many children are starting even younger: one in four zero- to three-year-olds have used a computer without sitting on their parent’s lap (27%).”
Based on a “nationally representative” random-digit-dial telephone survey of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years conducted in the spring of 2003, the study arrives at six significant findings:
Children six and under spend an average of two hours a day with screen media, mostly TV and videos;
TV watching begins at very early ages, well before the medical community recommends;
A high proportion of very young children are using new digital media, including 50% of four- to six-year-olds who have played video games and 70% who have used computers;
Two out of three zero- to six-year-olds live in homes where the TV is usually left on at least half the time, even if no one’s watching, and one-third live in homes where the TV is on ‘almost all’ or ‘most’ of the time; and children in the latter group of homes appear to read less than other children and to be slower to learn to read;
Many parents see media as an important educational tool, beneficial to their children’s intellectual development, and parents’ attitudes on this issue appear to be related to the amount of time their children spend using each medium; and
Parents clearly perceive that their children’s TV watching has a direct effect on their behavior, and are more likely to see positive rather than negative behaviors being copied.
