Report Finds Americans Use Tablets as Babysitters
By 
Every time I show my iPad to a toddler or a child, they’re automatically entranced. It’s like magic! I have a 7-year-old cousin and a 16-year-old cousin, both of whom can’t wait to get their hands on my iPad whenever I visit.
Many times when I’m out at the store or the doctor’s office, I notice kids sporting iPads and iPhones in an effort to keep them quiet and entertained. And it works. Those kids are rarely noisy or disruptive. More and more parents are turning to the iPad as an entertainment device for children. In fact, a new Nielsen survey of adults with children under 12 in tablet-owning households has revealed that seven out of 10 children use the tablet.
That’s a nine percent increase in tablet usage in children over the third quarter of 2011. As more adults adopt iPads, that number is only going to continue to grow, which is great. I think it’s amazing that kids are growing up with that kind of technology, and it will be interesting to see how an increasingly digital world changes their development.
77 percent of the adults queried in the survey said that children play downloaded games on their tablets, and 57 percent said that children used them to access educational apps.
55 percent reported that their children used tablets for entertainment while traveling, and 41 percent said that the kids used it for entertainment in restaurants. This happens to include watching TV shows and movies, which 43 percent of children do.
Just 15 percent of children used the tablet to communicate with family and friends, which isn’t unusual for a survey of kids under 12.
It’s important, nowadays, for kids to grow up with access to this technology, especially as it becomes more widespread in schools and businesses. Many schools have been implementing iPads as educational tools, and eventually, our tablets may replace textbooks altogether.
How do you feel about children using tablets? Do your kids own one? Do they use yours? What do they do on it?
