The technologisation of childhood? Young children and technology in the home

Citation

Plowman L, McPake J & Stephen C (2010) The technologisation of childhood? Young children and technology in the home. Children and Society, 24 (1), pp. 63-74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2008.00180.x

Abstract
We describe an eighteen-month empirical investigation of three- and four-year-old children’s uses of technology at home, based on a survey of 346 families and 24 case studies. The findings are reported in the context of social commentators’ anxieties about the ways in which childhood is being transformed by technology. Although we report evidence of some parental disquiet about the role of technology in children’s lives we illustrate some of the complexities in families’ attitudes to, and uses of, technology and conclude that it is not perceived by parents to be the threat to modern childhood that is claimed.

Keywords
children; technology; ICT; home; parents; childhood; Computers and children; Technology and children; Technology Study and teaching (Elementary); Children Research Methodology

Journal
Children and Society: Volume 24, Issue 1