Recent Survey Shows Young Children Have Access To Parents Phones, Extra Care Must Be Taken Says Firstnumber

A survey undertaken by Nielsen has found that in the US almost a third of apps on parents phones have been downloaded by their children. The survey also confirmed although many people consider their phones to be private, 13% of the US app downloaders surveyed by Nielsen stated their spouse and/or partner had downloaded apps on their phone, while 6% said friends were responsible for some of their downloads. 8% of all respondents identified that their children has installed apps on their phone.

From the data provided through the survey, it was discovered that the youngest child downloading apps was nine years old. It was also discovered on average that 30% of all apps installed on the respondents phones were installed by their children.

Cheap call providers Firstnumber advises parents to take extreme care when handing phones to children. This is of particular importance when full access to the internet and applications can be accessed at the click of a button.

Smartphones and apps that adorn user friendly and intuitive interfaces have created large appeal amongst the younger generation, and are very simple to use. As a result, younger children are accessing app stores and downloading games and other applications with greater ease and frequency.

The spokesperson from cheap international calls provider Firstnumber elaborates:  “If parents can lay the right foundations and ensure that the appropriate parental security settings have been put in place prior to their child's usage of a smartphone, this gives some guarantee towards the safe experience of the device by youngsters. Secondly, by making sure that any app account login details are kept out of the control of children, this will enable full control for parents over spending levels and the kind of apps which are being downloaded.”


FACTFILE:
Firstnumber.co.uk is an online phone directory offering direct dial access codes that reduce the cost of making international calls from a UK landline.