Apps for kids 'growing market' in Sweden
A growing market of applications for smartphones and electronic reading pads aimed at young children and toddlers is being created in Sweden, according to experts who fear there may be consequences.
“The majority of Swedish two-year-olds are computer users today,” said mobile services expert Ann Katrin Agebäck of the Swedish Media Council (Statens medieråd) to news agency TT.
The Media Council was founded in January 2011 and is a government agency with the aims to reduce the risk of harmful media influences among minors and to empower minors as conscious media users.
Agebäck is concerned that there is a growing problem in Sweden with young kids being tricked into financial agreements by mobile services, especially as computer usage is becoming more common at younger ages.
And according to Jonas Linderoth of Gothenburg University, who specialises in children’s games habits and pedagogics, parents may be tricked to believe that these applications are more educational than they actually are.
“Just like computer games they are dressed up in pedagogical rhetoric, but they don’t always live up to their promises, “ he told TT.
But according to Agebäck at the Media Council, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that younger children’s interest in mobile services is growing, considering children have always wanted to mimic their parents.
“Children have always wanted to be where their parents are, whether they are milking cows on a farm or fiddling with their iphones,” Agebäck told news agency TT.
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“The majority of Swedish two-year-olds are computer users today,” said mobile services expert Ann Katrin Agebäck of the Swedish Media Council (Statens medieråd) to news agency TT.
The Media Council was founded in January 2011 and is a government agency with the aims to reduce the risk of harmful media influences among minors and to empower minors as conscious media users.
Agebäck is concerned that there is a growing problem in Sweden with young kids being tricked into financial agreements by mobile services, especially as computer usage is becoming more common at younger ages.
And according to Jonas Linderoth of Gothenburg University, who specialises in children’s games habits and pedagogics, parents may be tricked to believe that these applications are more educational than they actually are.
“Just like computer games they are dressed up in pedagogical rhetoric, but they don’t always live up to their promises, “ he told TT.
But according to Agebäck at the Media Council, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that younger children’s interest in mobile services is growing, considering children have always wanted to mimic their parents.
“Children have always wanted to be where their parents are, whether they are milking cows on a farm or fiddling with their iphones,” Agebäck told news agency TT.
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