Does Your Church Nursery Have Internet?

Does your church nursery have internet? Perhaps you think that is a strange question but not so according to some of the latest surveys and reports. Recently released reports by educational non-profit organizations, Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop, say that about 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 who use the Internet in the United States do so on at least a weekly basis.

Go ahead…read that last sentence a couple more times just like I did because it just seems like someone misquoted the facts. However, other surveys (seven for this report alone) seem to support these findings at least for the demographic that was surveyed.

I think that most of us would have expected television viewing to have consumed a great deal of a child’s time but I have to admit I was surprise at the internet usage. Yes, many of the studies discovered that children watch videos online but that is not the only online activities for children.

If you think that teens are the only ones who multi-task, then think again. According to a 2010 Nielsen report, findings suggests that 36% of children between the ages of 2 and 11 use both television and internet media simultaneously. If you narrow the study to children between the ages of 8 and 10 then you will discover they spend about 5.5 hours each day using media and that increases to eight hours if you count the additional media consumed while multitasking.

So what can we take away from these studies?

• Media is a part of the children and student’s lives in our ministries almost from birth so we need to use it but do so wisely.
• Media is often used as a surrogate for entertainment and reward so we need to be careful not to do the same with our ministries.
• Media can either be a tool or a distraction in the home – a relationship or a ministry. Therefore we need to help educate both parents and students in this area.
• Media is second nature to children and teens and so we must find ways to incorporate it into our ministries to benefit learning.
• Media is simply a vehicle to help us communicate truth so we need to keep our perspective as to its importance in our overall ministry strategy. 

So how have you faced the challenge of media and children? Have you had any children with cell phones? How old or should I say young? Anyone actually know someone between 0-5 years who uses the internet?