Children start to use mobile touchscreen devices (MTSDs) at an increasingly early age and for an increasing amount of time. However, research is limited on how this alters cognitive and socio-emotional skills. Therefore, our research group is doing extensive research in this area, from questionnaire studies through cross-sectional and longitudinal observational studies to experimental methods. We investigate the immediate and short-term effects of exposure to tablet contents (games and storybooks) on children's attention and creativity, the long-term associations of MTSD use with executive functions and soci-cognitive skills, and the associations of mental problems with digital device use. Our studies usually focuses on preschoolers or young school-aged children, but some of our studies investigate adolescents.

The trend of ever-increasing mobile phone use among children is unstoppable, so we believe that instead of banning it, a more realistic solution is to try to steer the way and character of mobile phone use in a more positive direction. For this purpose, we developed and are continuously developing Alphie, the interactive application package that behaves like a living being, and which acts as a launcher, i.e. as a home application, thereby affecting the general operation of the device and other applications running on it, too. Alphie also encourages the child user to do offline activities, participate in social interactions, and also tries to encourage the parent to engage with the child, such as reading stories. The effect of Alphie on the amount of family interactions and on the child's socio-cognitive skills is currently being investigated in the framework of a research.