This was the title of an interesting press release from anti-virus software maker AVG recently. They polled 2,200 mothers (with Internet access) of children aged 2-5 and asked them to tick off which life-skills and tech skills their child had mastered.
From the study of children in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, they found:
“…small children today are more likely to navigate with a mouse, play a computer game and increasingly – operate a smartphone – than swim, tie their shoelaces or make their own breakfast…”
Some interesting results:
1 – More small children can play a computer game than ride a bike. 58 percent of children aged 2-5 know how to play a ‘basic’ computer game. For the U.K. and France that jumps to 70 percent. Even 44 percent of 2-3 year olds have the ability to play a computer game. By comparison, 43 percent of kids 2-3 can ride a bike
2 – More kids aged 2-5 can play with a smartphone application (19 percent) than tie his or her shoelaces (9 percent). Almost as many 2-3 year olds (17 percent) can play with a smartphone application as 4-5 year olds (21 percent)
3 – More small children can open a web browser (25 percent) than swim unaided (20 percent)
“Technology has changed what it means to be a parent raising children today – these children are growing up in an environment that would be unrecognizable to their parents. The smart-phone and the computer are increasingly taking the place of the TV as an education and entertainment tool for children,” said AVG CEO, J.R. Smith.
It’ll be interesting to hear what is said by the partners of accounting firms when this generation enters the workforce.
