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Children’s excessive screen time has been a cause of concern for most parents. With schools shutting down for the summer vacation, parents are increasingly concerned as they look out for ways to keep their children busy during the holidays.
A survey conducted by Kantar for Amazon in March 2023 revealed that 85% parents of 3–8-year-olds are worried about their children’s screen time and a whopping 96% are actively looking for screen-free learning and fun activities to engage their children.
Deepender Rana, Executive Managing Director, Insights Division, Kantar, commented, “Kids are curious to learn new things and want to have fun in the process. With more free time at hand during summer vacations, parents have a big task ahead of themselves to keep their kids engaged.”
Over 90% parents believed that excessive screen time makes children less active. Though most parents opined that children should not have screen time of more than 2 hours a day, 69% parents claimed that their children spent more than 3 hours on screen.
82% parents expressed concern over keeping their kids engaged during the summer vacation. The survey results indicate that parents in metro and non-metro cities want to find creative ways to reduce boredom in their children, keep pace with their curiosity of learning, and ensure that their children enjoy the learning process.
Parents want their children to utilise their vacations picking up key skills such as English speaking (50%); learning good morals and social manners (45%); engaging in performing arts like dancing, singing and playing musical instruments (36%); doing arts and crafts (32%); and taking part in physical & outdoor activities (32%).
An interesting finding of the survey is that 66% parents were keen on buying a voice controlled smart speaker, such as Alexa, that can nurture curiosity, concentration, and communication skills of children. Over 95% parents asserted that using Alexa not only helps reduce screen time for their children but also keeps them engaged with interactive games, music, trivia, and educational content.
Some of the requests parents often make to Alexa are “Alexa, what is the spelling of dinosaurs”, “Alexa, why is the sky blue?”, “Alexa, open Wild Planet”, “Alexa, tell me a bedtime story”, and so on.
Parag Gupta, Director and Country Manager for Amazon Devices India, concludes, “No surprises when we see kids’ songs like Twinkle Twinkle, Chandaniya, and Baby Shark rule the list of top five most requested music to Alexa.”
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