Smartphone Usage Rates Spike Among Younger Generation

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Center for Digital Education.

More than half of 11-year-olds now own a smartphone, according to a recent national survey of more than 1,600 8- to 18-year-olds.

And the trend is on the rise.

“The use of technology in our daily lives is aging down dramatically,” said Eisha Buch, senior manager of education programs at Common Sense Media, the nonprofit organization that led the survey.

And children are mostly using their smartphones to watch YouTube, regardless of the 13-years-or-older-only policy.

Fifty-six percent of 8- to 12-year-olds watch videos every day, up from 24% in 2015, and the average time spent watching has roughly doubled to just under five hours a day, according to the report.

“We’re concerned about how the content takes kids down paths that offer bad information,” Buch said.

And to answer the popular question: What’s a good age to give my child a smartphone?

Buch said, “We don’t have a magic number, but it depends on what the need is, and whether it feels appropriate. When it happens, we just encourage guidelines and open dialogue about how to use it.”

Source: Center for Digital Education
https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/Smartphone-Usage-Rates-Spike-Among-Younger-Generation.html