US kids read little on e-readers, tablets:

Two-thirds of young children in the United States now have access to an e-reader or tablet, but only half of them actually use the device to read.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center surveyed 1577 parents on how much time kids between two and 10 spent with educational content on "screen media" such as televisions, computers and video games.

Sixty-two per cent of children had access to either an e-reader, a tablet or both - but only 49 per cent of them used the devices for reading, either alone or with their parents, the research institute said in a study published Friday.

And when they did read, it was typically for about five minutes a day - compared with about half an hour with printed books.

Parents considered 44 per cent of the screen media used by their children to be educational - representing 56 minutes out of two hours and seven minutes' viewing a day.

Fifty-seven per cent thought their child had learned "a lot" from educational media about reading and mathematics - but only 19 per cent thought that much had been learned about science.

Named for one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop, the studio behind Sesame Street, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center promotes literacy skills while researching digital learning for youngsters.