Children as young as 3 using gaming apps meant for users over 17 with themes of gambling and violence: Study
Children as young as 3 years old in the US are accessing and using gaming apps intended for users over the age of 17 with adult themes such as gambling and violence, according to researchers. The research team recruited 346 English-speaking parents and guardians of children aged 3 to 5 years from the Michigan area to take part in a study of child media use. Using a novel tracking approach, researchers found that nearly three-fourths of parents misreported preschoolers’ use of digital technology – and some children (ages 3-5) engaged with apps intended for teens and adults – according to the analysis published in Pediatrics.
The study found up to 85 different apps on the preschoolers' phones. Some children used apps not designed for them, such as Granny, a horror game where a person is locked in a house with a grandmother trying to kill the person, and Terrorist Shooter, which uses shotguns, machine guns, and sniper rifles to kill enemies. The most commonly used apps among three and four-year-olds were YouTube and YouTube Kids, followed by internet browsers and searches, the camera and photograph gallery, and video streaming services such as Netflix.
“We documented that preschool-aged children use YouTube (36.7% of our sample), general audience apps such as Cookie Jam and Candy Crush (30.6% of our sample), gambling apps such as Cashman, and violent apps such as Terrorist Shooter, Flip the Gun, and Granny, which are intended for use by teenagers and adults,” says the research team from University of Michigan, California; University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; and Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia.
Lead author Dr Jenny Radesky, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and researcher at University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital, said the finding that some children used age-inappropriate apps that were rated 17-plus and might have scary or violent or gambling components, was surprising. “So we think that there is a lot of relevance for how easy it is for children to access some apps that are inappropriate for a 3- to- 4-year-old,” said Dr Radesky in the analysis. According to the researchers, the findings also have implications for child privacy because general audience apps and platforms may not place restrictions on the data they collect or distribute to third-party advertising companies.
In a related commentary, experts say that some of the apps being used by the preschoolers (Terrorist Shooter and Flip the Gun), have been correlated with increased aggression and interest in guns. Taken together, the study findings “point to the need for pediatricians to be aware of their pediatric patients’ device use,” they add.
The study says that up to 75% of young children have their own tablets, and infants are estimated to start handling mobile devices during the first year of life. But research on modern media has been limited by a lack of precise measurement tools. Accordingly, the researchers developed an app to passively track mobile device use (for Android devices) and analyzed usage screenshots (for Apple devices) among the children for nine months between 2018 and 2019. They compared the data to parents’ estimates of their child’s media use.
The research team found that many preschool-age children use smartphones and tablets longer than recommended and parents often do not realize it. Roughly 35% (121 out of 346) of preschoolers in the study had their own smartphones or tablets, and they used it for an average of nearly two hours a day, according to the study. Among the children in this group, 40.5% used their device less than an hour a day, 26.5% used it one to two hours, 12% used it for two to three hours, 6% used it for three to four hours and 15% used it four or more hours. A few of these children also had devices running into the middle of the night, as late as 3 or 4 am, usually on YouTube. “The sample comprised 126 Android users (35 tablets, 91 smartphones) and 220 iOS users (143 tablets, 77 smartphones). We found high variability in daily mobile device usage in children with their own smartphones or tablets, with approximately 15% of children averaging greater than or equal to 4 hours per day,” says the study.
Those measurements did not always match parents’ reports, with just a third accurately reporting children’s mobile screen time use. “We found that most parents miscalculated their children’s time on mobile devices. They may also not be aware of what content is being shared or what apps are being marketed to children while they’re using their devices,” says Dr Radesky.
About 37% of parents underestimated their child’s screen time, and 35% overestimated their child’s screen time, with most being off by an average of 70 minutes. “Those who were inaccurate typically overestimated or underestimated by about an hour and were more likely to underestimate when their child used the device more than an hour a day. Participant recall accuracy of mobile device use may be low because exposure occurs in small bursts (less likely to be remembered than longer interactions) and parents may find it difficult to monitor content when children use handheld devices individually,” the findings state.
Dr Radesky has also authored screen time guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The guidelines say that for children ages 2 to 5, media should be limited to one hour a day, and it should involve high-quality programming or something parents and children can view or engage with together. Except for video chatting, digital media should also be avoided in children younger than 18 months, says the advisory. According to the experts, too much time using digital media in the wrong way is linked to children’s quality of sleep, development, and physical health, the statement notes. The guidelines recommend banning digital media use an hour before bed, turning off devices when not in use and keeping bedrooms, mealtimes, and parent-child playtime screen-free.