Parents Plan to Buy Tablets for Kids: Survey

As parents complete their holiday shopping, chances are that more than half of their kids will find a tech gift under the tree, says a new survey of parents released today by PBS KIDS.

Roughly half of parents (54%) plan to purchase or give a tech item to their children this holiday season, and the number is even higher for younger, tech-savvy millennial parents, ages 18-34, with nearly 6 in 10 (59%) saying they’ll make a technology purchase.

At the top of the list for all parents planning a tech purchase this holiday season are tablets, which edged out video game consoles 28% to 18%.

Combined, the number of parents planning to purchase a tablet or a smartphone was more than one-third (36%), according to the PBS KIDS survey of 1,000 US parents with kids between the ages of 2 and 10, conducted in November 2013 by ORCInternational.

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With the explosion of mobile media use among kids, nearly 7 in 10 parents say they currently purchase or plan to purchase apps for their children.

When selecting apps, parents say educational content is their top priority, with 77% of parents citing educational content as an important factor, and 90% of parents stating they believe that educational apps will play an important role in children’s learning in the future.

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PBS KIDS offers more than 25 different educational apps, many of them free – such as PBS Parents Play & Learn.

The new PBSKIDS.org has been designed to serve the increasing numbers of children interacting with educational programing on mobile devices, says the company.

PBS KIDS, an educational media brand for children, offers them the opportunity to explore new ideas through television, online and community-based programs.