An Ofcom report suggests that the number of children owning mobile phones has dropped with youngsters rejecting mobile handsets and switching to tablet computers instead for using internet.
This is for the first time that the number of youngsters aged five to fifteen owning a mobile phone in the survey has fallen by 6 percent point year-on-year from 49 percent in 2012 to 43 percent this year. The study indicates that children belonging to different age groups have different priorities when it comes to connected devices reports BBC.
Among children aged 12-15, smartphones remain the first choice over tablets. Around 62 percent of the children own a smartphone, this figure remain unchanged as compared to last year’s figure. But the percentage of children owing a tablet has increased from last year’s 7 percent to 26 percent this year.
Tablets are becoming more and more popular these days, and are gradually becoming a must-have device for children of all age groups. The use of tablets have tripled in number among children aged 5-15, being 42 percent up from 14 percent last year and around 28 percent of children aged 3-4 now use a tablet.
The young internet users prefer tablets to access internet at home five times more this year, the figure being increased from last year’s 4 percent to 19 percent this year.
The proportion of children using traditional devices like a laptop, netbook or desktop computer to go online has dropped significantly from 85 percent to 68 percent. Tablets with 13 percent and mobiles with 11 percent preference are the two most popular devices used to access internet.
