Korean toddlers' screen time clashes with WHO standards: survey
Chart generated by Gemini
Nearly 8 in 10 Korean children use smartphones before age 3
More than half of Korean toddlers begin using smartphones before their second birthday, running counter to international pediatric guidelines.
According to a survey of 400 parents published Monday, 50.98 percent of children started using smartphones before age 2, and 77.64 percent began before age 3. The findings appeared in the research journal MIND, published by the Mental Health Research Institute at the National Center for Mental Health.
Parents identified 12 to 23 months as the most common starting age, cited by 37.18 percent of respondents. Other age groups included 24 to 35 months at 26.66 percent and zero to 11 months at 13.80 percent. A smaller share began between 36 and 47 months at 12.39 percent and between 48 and 59 months at 12.96 percent.
On weekdays, daily smartphone use remained largely under an hour, reported by 56.78 percent of parents, while 32.74 percent reported no use and 9.46 percent reported one to three hours.
Weekend screen time surged as the share of children using smartphones for one to three hours more than doubled to 22.58 percent. The share of children with no screen time fell to 21.28 percent on weekends from 32.74 percent on weekdays. The proportion of children using smartphones for under an hour held steady at 54.87 percent on weekends, similar to weekdays.
The early smartphone use contrasts sharply with global public health standards. World Health Organization guidelines issued in 2019 recommend zero sedentary screen time for children under 2 and a one-hour daily limit for ages 2 to 4. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding screen media entirely for children younger than 18 months, with the exception of video chatting.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.