James R | On 10, Oct 2014

One in three children now have a tablet, according to new research from Ofcom.

The 2014 Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report reveals that a third of British children between the age of 5 and 15 have their own tablet device – almost double the amount recorded a year ago. Six in 10 children use a tablet at home, up 50 per cent in the past year.

This rising ownership of tablets has now slightly overtaken the number with a smartphone, which remains the same as last year: 34 per cent own a tablet, compared to 31 per cent with a phone. As children use their tablets to play games, surf the Internet and watch video, it is perhaps no surprise that the number of children with TVs in their bedroom has declined. 46 per cent of kids now have a TV set in their room – down a third from 2009.

While tablets can be used to do many things, though, TV remains their number one choice: kids aged 5 to 15 spend 14.6 hours watching the telly every week – down from 15.4 hours last year but more than any other media activity.

The report follows other research from Smarty Pants, which found that Apple iPad is now the most popular brand among children – ahead of Hershey’s, Oreo, M&M’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Skittles, Disney, YouTube and Xbox. (McDonalds and Nickelodeon sat just out the top 10.) Given the sheer number of food companies in the chart, the dominance of the iPad is a striking sign of the times: owning a tablet (specifically, an Apple tablet) is not just a growing trend among young viewers, but a desired thing.

“iPad’s number one status among kids represents the culmination of the ‘tablet takover’,” says Wynne Tyree, President of Smart Pants, “a movement from shared screens and TV network dominance to curated content on personal devices.”

One nine year old boy told the researchers: “I can watch YouTube and play Minecraft and the use the Internet anywhere I want. And I don’t have to share.”

Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video also saw significant increases in kids’ awareness.

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