A surprising number of ‘iPad Kids’ are on X, study find

A surprising number of “iPad kids” — that is, Generation Alpha’s 7- to 9-year-old demographic — are using X (formerly Twitter), according to new data from parental control software maker Qustodio in a report released on Monday focused on children’s app usage in the U.S. The firm found that over 30% of this group of children have an X account, and 44% already had their own tablet that they use to access apps and games.

It doesn’t seem like there’s much content on X that would attract younger users, with the platform tending to feature politics and breaking news, and, under Elon Musk’s reign, quite a lot of misinformation. It also heavily features Musk’s own political views, including his praise for Trump. However, Qustodio theorizes that X may be gaining the attention of this young crowd thanks to its integration with Google Search, which features X posts directly in the search results.

Qustodio told TechCrunch it thinks that kids’ usage of X is likely to be mostly driven by curiosity.

It expects that many kids found X by Googling something they were interested in, and then seeing X posts linked in the search results, featuring discussions of the topic at hand. Meanwhile, parents often think of X as an “older” app, so they may not think to block or restrict it, as they do with other social media apps like TikTok or Snapchat. Unfortunately, parents’ ignorance could lead their kids to be exposed to inappropriate content. The report noted that X could expose these younger kids to hate speech, pornography and disinformation, pointing to reports that indicate that 13% of all X posts feature adult content.

Qustodio’s data is particularly interesting because it stems from an analysis of kids’ real-world app usage, not surveys. The company runs a parental control software service, giving it a bird’s-eye view into what apps and games kids are regularly using, those that parents tend to block most, and which apps are popular with which age groups.

In this latest report, which is based on anonymous usage data from around 180,000 families with kids, the firm found that access to social media begins very young. In addition to the 31% of 7- to 9-year-olds who have accessed X, 28% use Reddit and 26% are on Facebook.

“The theory is that kids as young as 7 to 9 years of age are gaining access to apps like X and Reddit as parents either don’t know much about them or don’t think to block them because they aren’t as ‘popular’ — even though both platforms could expose kids to explicit content like hate speech, porn, and disinformation,” noted Yasmin London, global online safety expert for Qoria, Qustodio’s parent company, in an announcement detailing the report’s findings.

In addition, the report found that 42% of U.S. kids had their own smartphone by age 10. Also, starting at 10, 40% of kids began using the TikTok app for an average of 121 minutes per day, which equates to somewhere around 240 videos, assuming an average video length of 30 seconds.

Among the 10- to 12-year-olds, Roblox and YouTube were the most popular apps, used by 62% and 59% of kids, respectively. But X usage climbed to 41% in this age group, while Reddit usage grew to 39% and Facebook reached 36%.

As kids become teens, Roblox usage starts to decline, slipping to 52% among the 13- to 15-year-old crowd, while Spotify (66%), YouTube (62%) and Amazon Shopping (56%) become the three most popular apps. TikTok is used by 47% of this group, accounting for an average of 127 minutes per day.

Snapchat also gains adoption, with 38% of teens using the app for an average of 94 minutes per day. Social apps like X and Reddit are popular with this group, too, each used by 44% of the demographic, followed by Facebook at 42%.

For the young Gen Z members, ages 16 to 18, the top three apps continue to be Spotify (69%), YouTube (60%), and Amazon (52%); 42% are also using TikTok for an average of 108 minutes per day, with 72 minutes per day dedicated to Instagram. Discord and Snapchat are the most popular communication apps as well, used by 40% and 39% of this group, respectively. X and Reddit are also used by 40% of these teens, but Facebook has them now topped at 43% — slightly ahead of TikTok.

Of course, as this data comes from a parent control software maker, some of these percentages could be even higher out in the real world, where parents aren’t using any sort of app blocking or screen time software to control app usage. In addition, the higher usage of platforms like X, Reddit and Facebook could indicate that parents aren’t bothering to block these apps as much as others, as Qustodio said.