veilles / 16 Mar 2011
The new digital media habits of young children.
Always connected
This report takes a fresh look at data emerging from studies undertaken by Sesame Workshop, independent scholars, foundations, and market researchers on the media habits of young children, who are often overlooked in the public discourse that focuses on teens and tweens.
We reviewed seven recent studies — several never before released — about young children and their ownership and use of media. By focusing on very young children and analyzing multiple studies over time, we were able to arrive at a new, balanced portrait of children’s media habits. We also introduce portraits of children’s digital media use from a smaller qualitative study conducted by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center to add some tint and texture to the quantitative findings. Not everything we’re reporting here will be newsworthy.
But taken in its entirety, the view is of a settled pattern. Even as technology evolves and young children increasingly turn to games and mobile media, they still love television best.