Web-users are getting younger and younger, after a survey revealed a fifth of parents are introducing their children to technology – before they turn five.
According to research, most British children get their hands on electronic gadgets before the age of 12, but 20 per cent of kids receive their first piece of tech before they start primary school.
The survey of 1,000 parents also revealed education, not safety, is the primary reason why parents are shelling out hundreds of pounds for expensive computers and mobile phones for their children.
A whopping 93 per cent of British parents recognise the educational benefits of mobile technology like smartphones and laptops, and three quarters of them say it is the primary reason why they would buy tech for their child.
The research revealed parents today believe mobile technology holds more educational benefit for their children than newspapers, magazines, or the radio.
Also, more than half of parents consider their youngsters more savvier than them when it comes to computers, and the majority rely on their children to show them new ways to use their own mobiles.
ICT teacher at Shaw Wood Primary school, in Doncaster, Patrick Carroll said: “The classroom of the future is going to have to change.
“Our children need to be able to use the most recent technology because we don’t know what the jobs of the future are going to be.
“We do know it’s going to involve technology and it’s going to be collaborative and worldwide, and therefore we need to give children the best tools for that so that they are able to succeed.”
