Debate bubbles over how to navigate setting limits as UK study shows fifth of three- and four-year-olds have a device
How old is old enough to have your own mobile phone? For once, your children may be right that everyone else is getting them younger than you think.
New research from Ofcom has found that a fifth of three- and four-year-olds now have a phone of their own, and are already using them to watch streaming services, use social media and play games online.
This is not parents handing over their own phone to a toddler to amuse them briefly – much higher numbers (69%) of those aged three and four are regularly using phone handsets to go online, including on borrowed devices, according to the media regulator. But the finding that one in five had their own handset led the Children’s Commissioner for England to say this week that they should not have them at all. “Very young children do not need internet-enabled phones,” Dame Rachel de Souza told the Telegraph.
Anxiety about children’s exposure to technology is nothing new, but while most parents will grapple at some point with setting limits on phones, many will admit to letting even very young children use them from time to time. So how should parents navigate this often fraught territory? And what are toddlers using mobile phones for anyway?
Ofcom did investigate the latter question. Three- and four-year-olds may still be developing the dexterity to hold a pen, dress themselves or cut their food, but 92% of them watch video streaming platforms such as YouTube (across all devices), almost half send voice and video messages, 23% use social media apps or sites, 18% are playing games online and 11% have posted their own video streaming content.
Children of this age were more likely (51%) to use YouTube’s dedicated kids’ channel than the main site (31%), although a striking 38% had their own YouTube profile. Once there, as any parent who has lost a young child to Baby Shark or Peppa Pig knows, they like cartoons, animations, mini movies or songs.
Separate research from The Insights Family has found that the favourite YouTube channels of this age group are Blippi, a blue- and orange-clad actor whose videos about tractors and popsicles have earned him 17 million subscribers, and Ryan’s World, the phenomenally successful unboxing and educational site of now 11-year-old Ryan Kaji (34 million subscribers).
Many teachers will not need data to tell them of the ubiquity of phones among younger children and their potential impact.
