Watching, playing, making, learning: Young children’s use of mobile devices

Abstract

Mobile devices provide additional opportunities for families with young children to seek, exchange, and use information. This paper presents an exploratory interview study with representatives from 19 families. The goal of the study was to examine how young children and their families use mobile devices and whether this usage includes information seeking activities or other activities that can be linked to the children’s information behavior. Results indicate that the children show a great variety of information-related activities while using the mobile devices. Activities that may appear as pure entertainment at first glance also have to be considered in the context of the children’s information behavior. The results contribute to a better understanding of young children’s experiences in relation to mobile devices and raise new questions about the information behavior of young children in general.