Kids getting tech savvy at ever younger ages

From iTWire:

A new report from NPD says the average age children start using technology fell to 6.7 years old in 2007, as kids versions of tech gear becomes more common, too.

NPD’s new report, “Kids and Consumer Electronics Trends III”, is their third report since 2005 to see how consumer electronics and children are interacting with each other.

Anita Frazier, an industry analyst at The NPD Group said that: “Kids are drawn to the latest and greatest digital devices just as their parents are. They appear to have no fear of technology and adopt it easily and without fanfare, making these devices a part of their everyday lives.”

Back in 2005, children were on average 8.1 years old before they started using technology, but in 2007 this has dropped to 6.7 years. To me, these ages seem awfully old – I personally started using computers, thanks to the foresight of my father, way back in 1979 when I was only four years old, two years before the IBM PC was released onto the world market.

Comments 1

  • Hmmmm… My son has been able to open a web browser and find the sesame street game he wants to play with very little assistance since he was 2 and a half year old. Now at 3, he has learned hoe to remove and insert dvd’s into the player. Guess that is what happens when I leave my old pager and blackbery sitting around for him to play with to prevent him abusing/using my current one. Also, while he can’t write more than a few squiggly letters yet, he CAN type or fingerspell his name, as well as several friend’s. In using a set wooden letters, he has figured out -on his own- how to spell MOMMY and FREDDY when there is only one of each letter: NOM[W]Y and FRED[P]Y – the brackets represent upside-down letters, making them look like NOMMY and FREDdY. All this at/before the age of 3!

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