POPULAR GIFT: A girl, accompanied by her mother, tries out an iPad2 tablet computer in a store in Huaian City, east China's Jiangsu Province, on June 2 (CFP)

Three-year-old Li Ming is a restless boy in Beijing, but one thing that always calms him down is an iPad. Like many young children in China, Li has been exposed to electronic products almost from birth. When he was about 1 year old, his mother began showing him animated children's songs on a computer.

Her efforts seemed to pay off. As soon as the boy could open his mouth, he began singing some of the songs he had listened to.

When Li was about 2 years old, his mother introduced him to a computer-based animated language-teaching program. Since he was too young to manipulate the computer, the mother handled the controls and the computer-aided learning experiences went very smoothly.

But things quickly got out of hand after Li turned 3 and learned to operate an iPad to play games.

To enhance his cognitive ability and eye-hand coordination, Li's mother introduced him to some simple games. A game called Looking for Shadows requires the player to match animals and plants with their shadows by dragging the objects and dropping them upon their shadows. Another game simulating piano playing displays lines of musical notes, and tempts the kid to play them by clicking on keys on the screen.

Li loved the games, and soon became adept at playing them. At the beginning, the mother was happy about his progress. But soon she felt apprehensive, as the child seemed addicted to games. Every day, as soon as he woke up, he switched on the iPad, logged onto the Internet and played games for hours. The boy was no longer interested in going outdoors, nor reading nursery rhymes or scribbling on paper.

Digital generation

Chinese children today start using electronic products at an early age, according to a survey jointly conducted by Guangzhou Daily and Guangzhou Children's Palace shortly before this year's International Children's Day on June 1.

The survey covered 1,047 students and 500 parents in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province. The survey asked when their children began to use computers and cellphones. The average starting age reported by the parents was 4, and that reported by the students was just under 6.

This echoed the findings of another survey on minors' Internet usage conducted by the Chinese Young Pioneers Business Development Center in 2011. The survey was carried out in 10 provinces and questionnaires were distributed to 110,000 students in 100 primary and middle schools and to 5,500 parents.

According to survey results released this March, 26.2 percent of the minors surveyed first accessed the Internet at or below the age of 7, and more than 70 percent of the respondents began surfing the Internet at or before 10 years old.

It also revealed that 91.4 percent of the minors had access to the Internet, and 82 percent went online at home.

Touch screen cellphones and the iPad make it easier for children to access the Internet. The survey conducted in Guangzhou found that 40 percent of the families surveyed had iPads. In the other survey conducted by the Chinese Young Pioneers Business Development Center, more than 72.8 percent of the minor respondents had cellphones and 80 percent logged on the Internet via cellphone.

In fact, the iPad and the iPhone have become children's favorite toys. Many children asked their parents for these digital gadgets as a gift on International Children's Day.

Double-edged tools

With colorful graphics and interactive functions, educational software can pique children's interest in learning and introduce them to math, languages, art and a wide range of other skills.