A new study has found that more than 30 percent of babies as young as 6 months old are using smartphones. The survey asked parents twenty questions about when their children were first exposed to mobile media devices. What makes everyone so alarmed is that the study has found that children are being exposed to mobile devices earlier than ever before.
But before we all jump on the judgment train, let's stop and think about how much more ubiquitous smartphones are now than they were even five years ago. It's not that parents have gotten lazier, which some reporters have suggested. It's that more parents have access to smartphones that they can use to show family pictures to entertain a baby or play music that a toddler can dance with.
What the study didn't address was how much time these babies are spending looking at smartphones. Nor did it assess what these babies are looking at. Is it 5 minutes of music in the grocery store while Mom or Dad gets the food into the cart? Or is it 30 minutes of watching videos while a parent sacks out on the couch? There is a big difference between the two scenarios (场景).
By the numbers, the study found that among babies younger than 1 year old, 52 percent had watched television on mobile devices, 36 percent had been allowed to scroll the screen, 15 percent had used apps and 12 percent had played video games. Around 25 percent of kids had already called someone at this age.
The American Academy of Pediatrics frowns upon any screen time for children under the age of two. But I don't think we need to necessarily panic. I did not have a smartphone when my girls were this age but I can tell you right now that if I had owned one, there would have been many occasions when I would have gladly handed over my phone to play music or a video or even a video game if it would have calmed a screaming baby. They would have turned out just fine.
