Attack Of The Tech-Savvy Toddlers

About 15% of 2- to 5-year-olds use cell phones and 62% of 11- to 14-year-olds use the devices, according to a new study.

The NPD Group announced results from a survey of American parents with children ages 2 to 14 in its report, Kids & Digital Content. The report said children are becoming more tech-savvy, with children as young as 2 years old downloading content to cell phones, computers, and portable digital music players.

"Without a doubt, kids are digital content natives, seamlessly navigating between traditional and digital sources of media without missing a step," Anita Frazier, an NPD Group industry analyst, said through statement released Tuesday. "To kids, there is nothing new or novel about digital sources of entertainment. The real challenge for marketers is to be one step ahead of their competition, providing the content and technology kids crave."

More than one in 10 children download content by the time they are 7 years old, 22% download by age 10, and 50% download at 14, according to the report.

Seventy-five percent of children with an Internet connection use it, and nearly half browse the Web without help and one-third do so with their parents or someone else, according to the study.Downloading games is the most prevalent activity, while 25% of children watch downloaded movies, television, music videos, or streaming video content, the study found.

Children spend an average of 44 minutes per session playing on video game systems and the same amount of time listening to music on portable digital music players, according to NPD.

Eighty-seven percent of the video game system users studied pay for content, while 70% of children using portable digital music players do so, according to the report. Sixty-seven percent of the cell phone users and 55% of computer users in the study pay for content, according to the report.