• by Aaron Baar , August 5, 2011

Consumer electronics in general, and the smartphone in particular, are becoming an indispensable part of family life.

According to a survey of more than 1,000 moms conducted by The Parenting Group publishing company and BlogHer, 71% of moms do not go more than one day without using the Internet, with 40% saying they can go only a few hours without using a mobile phone and the Internet. (Comparatively, only 18% say the same about television.) In fact, 79% said that cell phones are a necessity, compared with 42% saying the same about a typical landline.

"While the penetration of smartphones is significant, moms use [them] in so many different ways," Mark Wildman, vice president and group publisher at Parenting, tells Marketing Daily. "These things have essentially become a tool for modern families."

But it's not just the moms who are using their cell phones. According to the survey, parents are allowing their children to use electronic devices at ever-earlier ages. While parents in a similar survey last year said 13 was the average age to let children have their own mobile phone, respondents this year said they began allowing kids as young as toddlers to use the phone (25% said they allow their 2-year-olds to use the phone). Of course, they're not using them to communicate. According to the survey, the moms are giving the phones to their toddlers as a toy or diversion (23%) or as a game device (15%).

"There are controls about when parents allow kids to use devices out of their purview, but when it comes to just handing one over, that's happening at a very early age," says Elisa Camahort Page, COO of BlogHer.

But the phone isn't the only device kids are using in the home. According to the survey, many parents allow their children to use several devices by the time they reach the age of 4. According to the survey, 60% of children have used a computer by that age, while 43% have used a digital camera; 32% have used a smartphone; 25% have used an iPod, and 14% have used a tablet computer.

At the same time, families are still heavily reliant on face-to-face for intra-family communications. While 81% of moms use Facebook and 57% use blogs on a daily basis to communicate with each other, only 2% use Facebook to communicate with their kids.

"It's nice to see that for the vast majority of parents, most of their communication is in-person," Camahort Page says.