One in 3 UK Children Have Access To A Tablet In The Home

Annual research from the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom indicates that tablets are gaining increasing acceptance in UK homes with 1 in three children using tablets in their home environment. The penetration of tablet use in UK homes continues to grow year over year demonstrating how tablets are now becoming far more common and in some cases replacing laptops.

The change from the year before for children between 5-15 years of age leapt from 19 percent owning their own tablet to 34 percent owning one a year later. This is not a device shared with their parents, but one that is owned by the child themselves.

Even for children just 3 or four years of age 11 percent, just over 1 in ten young kids own their own tablet up from just 3 percent a year earlier. Parents are clearly feeling that a tablet is a good way to both occupy a child with games and also as an educational tool.

Laptops and desktop PCs are not out of the running in British homes yet though. The user of netbooks, laptops and desktop PCs is still at 88 percent for children accessing the internet which was down for the first time by 3 percent. In not all cases did the child actually own the PC though, which was not the case with the tablets where they had their own. Perhaps for this reason tablets are gaining acceptability as a way to give each child their own digital independence to some degree.

Smart phone ownership among children is not currently a growth story like tablets have been. 20 percent of 8-11 year olds own a smart phone and 65 percent of 12-15 years old own one.

TV sets in kids' bedrooms has dropped by 20 percent to 46 percent year over year indicating that the tablet PC is becoming a gaming and media watching device that is gradually replacing schedule programming on a TV. Meanwhile TV show watching on tablets grew 5 percent to 20 percent. Gaming on tablets rose 7 percent to 30 percent whilst dedicated gaming consoles dropped 4 percent.

Social media use on digital devices is also falling for children in UK households though messaging app usage remains strong. App fashionable trends means that sites like Bebo that were hugely popular in 2009 have barely any interest today with younger users.