• Sweden edition

Apps for kids 'growing market' in Sweden

Published: 21 Jun 11 08:16 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/34478/20110621/

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.

TT/Rebecca Martin (news@thelocal.se)

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08:43 June 21, 2011 by byke
Am I the only one who is questioning the professionalism and integrity of the above article?
09:02 June 21, 2011 by zeero
@byke, no, you're not the only one :-)
12:24 June 21, 2011 by PoJo
Yeah, let's have children play with their smartphones instead of playing with other children. Who needs human interaction anyway???

Technology freaks!
14:00 June 21, 2011 by johnny1939
I wonder how parents can afford these expensive "toys" for young children if they are anything like my kids the phone would be lost or stolen within the hour or end up in the sandbox.
19:00 June 21, 2011 by mkvgtired
PoJo, I was thinking the same thing. I cant tell you how often I see kids glued to their iPhone 4s and iPads. When I see them I always think, "when i was that age I was playing football or basketball with my friends". It makes me sound like an old man (I'm 26). But you're right. Things have drastically changed in a relatively short time.

johnny1939, if you're a parent that spoils your children to death you would be undeterred. My friend's younger brother (16 years) jumped in a pool forgetting his phone was in his pocket. It was replaced within 2 days. My mom would have told me "use your head next time, you better save up for a new one".
22:19 June 21, 2011 by dizzymoe33
I think it is ridiculous that these young children are using so much tech stuff like cell phones and things. When you walk by the kids now days they don't see you because they are all looking down at their stupid little screens they don't know how to act properly in a social setting. They can't even go out to eat and sit at the same table and talk to each other they do it by texting, how stupid is that? This is suppose to be our future? I understand some technology is good but there is such a thing as too much technology. Sometimes less is more.
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