Overview

The easy interface of touchscreen technologies like tablets and smartphones has enabled children to access the digital world from a very young age. But while some commentators are enthusiastic about how this can open a new world for fun, learning, and developing digital skills, others see the dangers of yet more screens, inauthentic play, and time spent isolated with electronic babysitters that detract from interaction with parents and learning social skills. Taking five as the age when children transition into formal education, this book draws on a three-year research project examining the realities of under six-year-olds’ experiences of these technologies in the UK and Australia. With a theoretical context including Vygotsky, Bruner, Bronfenbrenner and Flewitt, the book examines how parents of young children evaluate the opportunities and risks of children’s digital media use in the context of other significant influences such as children’s time with grandparents, early childhood care and education. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 22 families, and rich ethnographic data from observation and exchanges with their 29 children, aged four months to five years, the book reveals how digital technologies complement and challenge important aspects of daily life for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

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9781350120273

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Reviews

The book provides a necessary “real-world” look into young children’s use of digital technology, the potential benefits they provide, and the potential challenges they may create. * Choice * Digital Media Use in Early Childhood is an important addition to research on children and technology. It avoids simple ideas and gives a detailed, realistic view of how children interact with digital media. * LSE Review of Books * This fascinating book challenges established notions about children and technology and offers significant insights into issues such as digital parenting, screen time and learning through digital media. A must-read for researchers, educators and policy makers alike and will undoubtedly inform future global research and policy agendas in this area. -- Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK This book offers a complexified view of young children’s uses of technologies and appreciates diverse configurations of families. The book recognizes young children as rights holders in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It offers helpful insights for those working in early childhood and family contexts as educators, researchers, and policymakers. -- Lori McKee, University of Saskatchewan, Canada This timely book speaks eloquently to the poorly understood phenomenon of how digital technology plays out in the lives of young children. The authors report their rigorous empirical research with children from birth to age 5 years, whilst also reflecting on an important suite of studies they have conducted on this topic over recent years. Work such as this is much needed to fill the vacuum of reliable knowledge about the intersections between technology, parenting, childhood and a society that fails to understand the implications of tech for young lives yet is quick to judge parents who struggle to support their children’s tech use. It is a must-read for anyone interested in digital media use in early childhood. -- Rosie Flewitt, Professor of Early Childhood Communication, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

This fascinating book challenges established notions about children and technology and offers significant insights into issues such as digital parenting, screen time and learning through digital media. A must-read for researchers, educators and policy makers alike and will undoubtedly inform future global research and policy agendas in this area. -- Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK This book offers a complexified view of young children’s uses of technologies and appreciates diverse configurations of families. The book recognizes young children as rights holders in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It offers helpful insights for those working in early childhood and family contexts as educators, researchers, and policymakers. -- Lori McKee, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Author Information

Lelia Green is Professor of Communications, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia. Leslie Haddon is a Guest Lecturer and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Sonia Livingstone (OBE) is Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Brian O’Neill is Emeritus Professor, School of Media, Technological University Dublin, Ireland. Kylie J Stevenson is Academic Chair of Graduate Research Training and Education at Murdoch University, Australia. Donell Holloway is a retired Senior Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University, Australia.

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