Mobile kids: Mobile devices between kids, parents, and the playground.

National and International surveys (Common Sense Survey, 2011-2017; Feierabend et al., 2015-2016; Global Kids Online, 2016; Ofcom, 2014) confirm that the number of children using mobile phones is constantly growing and yet little is known about the type of interactions kids have with mobile technologies. Academic research is conducted in different countries with different methodologies (Chaudron et al., 2014; Ebert et al., 2012; Hermida, 2013; Marsh et al., 2005; Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014; McPake et al., 2013), but as the EU Kids Online’s searchable European Evidence Database shows, only a small percentage of studies focuses on children under the age of 9. In addition, few take into account mobile devices and even fewer investigate the parental role. Moreover, many studies focus on the binary opposition use/non-use of the technology rather than exploring the granularity of the use itself, thus underestimating the fact that smartphones allow different activities and uses: from playing games to watching videos, from making calls or video calls to sending messages or taking pictures. In this respect, a recent cross-national study, conducted in the framework of the European Commission JRC’s Project ECIT (Chaudron, 2015), found that smartphones are “melting pot devices” for children as they are very versatile in their use, and suggests therefore to investigate this aspect further. To fill this gap, and with specific reference to the three main language regions of Switzerland (i.e. German, French and Italian speaking parts), every two years a network of different Swiss Universities, supported by foundations and national initiatives focused on kids and media, carries out a national study that investigates the media usage of children aged from 6 and 13, and how their parents mediate this engagement. The study has been carried out since 2014, collecting data not only about how children use various media, but also about their non-media leisure activities. In 2017, a representative sample of 1128 children aged from 6 to 13 were interviewed (younger classes) and surveyed (older classes). The different methodology is due to the fact that younger students are not able to complete the survey on their own due to its complexity. In addition, the answers of 629 parents were included in the analysis, in order to throw light on issues in the area of family and media. In our contribution, we intend to present and to discuss results in relation to the children’s use smartphones and tablets in terms of quantity and quality. This means that we will provide representative data about which of the possible uses of mobile devices children actually activate, what are the contents they most commonly watch through mobile devices, what are their favourite mobile apps and how do they interact with them, and finally how parents mediate these uses. The results show that the mobile phone tops the list of children’s favourite media. The fascination of mobile devices is also reflected by the fact that 35 percent of children use their own mobile phone at least once a week when they should be sleeping. It must be remarked though that for 6 to 9 year olds, the tablet is the favourite medium – in front of the mobile phone and one third of all children in Switzerland have their own tablet. If we look at the specific uses of smartphones, playing games and watching online videos are the most important ones. The favourite games of Swiss children are Super Mario, Minecraft, FIFA and Clash Royale. YouTube is by far the favourite app on average especially for those children aged 9 and over. However, despite the large availability of digital (and often mobile) media, in their free time children most often play, meet friends, play sports, and do things with their families. Overall, the study also shows that parents and children influence each other in their media use, and they often use the same media with similar frequency.