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42% of Americans Under 8 Have Their Own Tablet (axios.com)
A reader shares an Axios report: A whopping 42% of children ages 0-8 have their own tablet device, up from less than 1% in 2011, according to Common Sense Media's newest national "Media Use by Kids" census. Families with young children are now more likely to have a subscription video service such as Netflix or Hulu (72%) than they are to have cable TV (65%). 10% of kids age 8 or under own a "smart" toy that connects to the internet and 9% have a voice-activated virtual assistant device available to them in the home, such as an Amazon Echo or Google Home.
Parents need to remember that your kid is learning from your behavior. If you have your nose in your phone and tablet all day every day, you are teaching your kid that that is acceptable behavior. No matter how much you try to restrict their access to it, they are very likely to mimic you in the end. If you use a phone and tablet sparsely and put an emphasis on doing other things, the kid is much more likely to do the same. So, giving them a tablet isn't that huge of a deal so long as you yourself don't have one surgically attached at the hip.