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Study: babies as young as six-months using playing with tablets, smartphones

WASHINGTON — A new study finds that babies as young as six months are already smartphone and tablet savvy.

Presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, the study of 370 children ages six months to 4 years, found that over a third of children under the age of one used either device. By age two, the majority of them were using them, their parents reported.

Other findings: 97 percent of the families’ homes had televisions, 83 percent had tablets, 77 percent had smartphones and 59 percent had Internet access.

Some 52 percent of children under one year had  had watched TV, 36 percent had touched or scrolled a screen, 24 percent had “called someone,” 15 percent used apps, and 12 percent played video games. Some 26 percent of 2-year-olds and 38 percent of 4-year-olds used devices for at least an hour a day.

Best cars for teens 2020, as picked by US News

Looking for a car for a young driver can be nerve-wracking, but some cars are designed to give nervous parents a little more peace of mind. And that’s why they’re on US News and World Report’s Best Cars for Teens list for 2020. “The best cars for teens and new drivers are cars that have safety features that can really keep them accident-free while they're still developing their skills,” said Jamie Page Deaton, US News’ executive editor for cars. “They're going to encounter situations once they're on their own that they did not encounter while they were in driver's ed.” She gave emergency braking as an example — “a lot of teens won't practice that maneuver as part of driver's ed. Some driver's ed programs do have that, but a lot of them don't.”
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