If you have a child in the next few years, there's a very reasonable chance they'll be ably swiping on your smartphone or tablet well-before they're old enough to read.
According to a national study by Common Sense Media that interviewed 1,463 parents with children from zero to eight, mobile devices have successfully infiltrated almost 50 percent of households and are increasingly changing the way children consume media.
Here are a few interesting bits from the study:
Nearly 40 percent of children (zero to eight) under two have used a mobile device.
And six percent of children under two use them daily. Daily!
The reason for this is pretty simple: there are nearly 25 percent more smartphones in households than there were two years ago.
Perhaps the biggest revelation though is what could be the beginning of a slow phase out of the desktop or personal computer, among young children. Unlike older forms of technology, like televisions, which remain a fundamental part of media consumption, PCs are playing less and less of a role in the formative years. While PC usage is bound to be lower in the surveyed age range (zero through eight years old), there's still the possibility that children growing up with mobile devices at a younger age will render the desktop experience less important to the next generation of teens and young adults to come online.