How can a 3 year-old own a smartphone? asks Griselda Heppel. They don't have pockets.
I have just read a statistic that brought me up short.
It came towards the end of ‘Why Children’s Books?’, an excellent article in the London Review of Books, Vol 47, No 2 (oh all right, 6 February 2025… yes I know, I’ve been catching up) by Katherine Rundell.
The multi-prizewinning author of Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, Impossible Creatures and other enchanting children’s books wrote a passionate defence of childhood reading, how it builds and stretches the imagination, preparing the mind and spirit for experiences that will come with adulthood, while at the same time fostering joy, delight, excitement and escapism. ‘A children’s book,’ she writes, ‘is not a luxury good. It is fundamental to our culture, to the grown-ups we become, to the society we build.’
Which is why, she warns, the decline of reading for pleasure in 8 – 18 year-olds is so serious. According to the National Literacy Trust’s Annual Literacy Survey 2025, only 1 in 3 (32.7%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 say they enjoy reading in their free time, down from around 45% in 2005.
So what’s behind the falling figure? The closure of many libraries up and down the country in the last few years will not have helped. But arguably more insidious is the explosion of social media and children’s access to it. Whereas in the past, children with nothing to do might have lost themselves in a book, now the temptation to pass the time by scrolling through videos or playing games on their smartphones means books don’t stand a chance. Sad though this statistic is, it didn’t shock me. What did came in Rundell’s next statement: ‘A quarter of three and four-year-olds in the UK own their own smartphone.’
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| Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell |
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| The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell |
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| Happy, pre-smartphone days: children losing themselves in a book. |
Three and four-year-olds. Think about it. How is that even possible? How can a three-year old ‘own’ anything, except a dummy and a dog-eared comfort blanket? Their clothes don’t even have pockets. A rogue statistic, surely.
So I checked it up. The usual way. ‘Yes,’ chirruped Google AI Overview, ‘the statement is accurate: according to Ofcom's 2024 data, a quarter (25%) of three- and four-year-olds in the UK own their own smartphone. This finding comes from Ofcom's annual research into children's media use and attitudes.’
Oh, it does, does it? Hmm. Scrolling down revealed articles applying this 25% figure to 5 – 7-year-olds. Aha! Somewhere along the line the findings for the two age groups had got muddled, of course they had. A study of the Ofcom report itself would put this right.
Alas. The 2024 Children and Parents Media Use and Attitudes report confirms that while a quarter of 5 – 7 year-olds own a smartphone, so do a quarter of 3 - 4 year-olds. Up from 4% just 4 years ago.
Katharine Rundell is bang on the money. As is, in my view, the growing lobby to discourage, even ban, the purchase of smartphones for children.
The vision of a toddler trotting round with one stuffed in its trainer pants is one I wish I could forget.
Find out more about Griselda Heppel here:
and her children's books:
Comments
Perhaps there are parents who use a phone to keep track of where their children are.
Katherine Rundell’s children’s books are terrific. Beautifully written, as you’d imagine from reading her book on Donne, and charming characters and plots.