Australian Children of the Digital Age
ACODA is a longitudinal study that aims to provide the big picture of digital technology use in early childhood.
A world-first study to investigate children’s digital engagement at a population level
The Australian Children of the Digital Age (ACODA) study is documenting and tracking patterns of more than 3000 Australian families and their children from six months to six years of age.
By engaging thousands of families across Australia, we will learn more about how digital technologies are used by young children and understand the impact of technology use.
What does the study involve?
Participants are asked to undertake an online survey each year for four years.
The survey asks questions about how their child or children aged between six months and six years old engage with digital technologies. Question themes include:
Types of technologies used by the family
Frequency and context of technology use
Caregiver perspectives of technology usage and its influence on children’s health and wellbeing
Demographics (e.g. age, gender, geographic location)
What did we learn in year one of the study?
We’re engaging with thousands of families across Australia to learn more about how digital technologies are used by young children through our ACODA study.
Check out our infographic for a sneak peek of what our ACODA families told us in the first year of data collection.
What did we learn in year two of the study?
In our second wave of data collection, our ACODA families gave us an update on digital technology use in their home. We had 3,388 caregivers complete the survey in Wave 1, and 2,894 of these caregivers returned to complete the survey in Wave 2.
We heard that:
- 🧒 ACODA children are a year older and the proportion of children using each device has increased
- ⏱️ On average, children in wave two are using devices for longer, however, some children spent less time using devices
- 👪 Children are still using devices with their caregivers more than with other people
- 📺 Televisions were used by 59% of children for learning activities and 89% for entertainment viewing
- 📱Tablets were used for learning activities, entertainment viewing, and playing games. Use of tablets in all categories was higher for 5 yr olds than 1 yr olds
