Mobile phone use by young children and parent's views on children's mobile phone usage

Abstract

Aims: This study aims to explore the prevalence of mobile phone use among young children aged 6 months to 4 years. We studied the usage patterns, optimal age for use, and the attitudes of parents toward their child's mobile phone use. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in a pediatric OPD of a tertiary teaching hospital for a period of 2-months. Ethics committee approval and informed consent was taken before conducting the research. A predesigned and validated questionnaire was used to collect data. We calculated a sample size of 90 children at a 95% confidence level. Chi-square test and Fischer's exact test were used as a test of significance at 5% level of significance. Results: We observed that 73.34% of children were using mobile phones and mobile phone usage increased with age. Children used mobile phones for educational purposes (43.9%), and for less than an hour a day (57.6%). In the 3-4 year age group, 19% used mobile phones for 3 hours or more. While 93.3% of parents felt they shouldn't give their child a phone, 71.4% children of these parents still used one. Conclusions: Our study highlights a high prevalence of mobile phone use among young children aged 6 months to 4 years. Although parents aimed to limit their child's phone usage, the reality was different. We recommend that guidelines on mobile phone use be followed in India.