ABSTRACT

This chapter provides insight into daily media patterns of 0–3 year olds, and to explore the role of (older) siblings in influencing, guiding and mediating infants’ and toddlers’ (digital) media use. It focuses on to introduce the findings of recent empirical studies on infants’ and toddlers’ media use, paying special attention to the findings that differentiate between media use in households with and without siblings. The chapter also focuses on recent empirical literature on the topic and present additional illustrating details from the findings of ethnographic case study about the roles played by 4-year-old Lily when guiding and mediating the media use of her 2-year-old sister, Mia. Young children live in media-rich homes where both traditional and new media are integrated in their daily routines. In many homes across the globe, children have access to a TV set, which is why television still reigns supreme in the screen media use of infants and toddlers.