They are toddlers who cannot yet string together complete sentences but their parents say they can already use the cell phone, as well as download content to computers and portable digital players.

A survey of American parents by the NPD Group, a US organisation which offers marketing research services, say that about 15 per cent of kids aged two to five can use cell phones and 62 per cent of children from the ages of 11 to 14 use such phones regularly.

Are these two-year-old precocious or are their parents exaggerating?

A Singaporean father with a two-year-old son thinks the claim is a little far-fetched.

Said Mr Adrian Tay, 34, an executive online content producer: "I don't think a two-year-old is capable of downloading stuff. They probably could if they hit a key by mistake, or something."

"My son Ethan, who is two years and two months old, can tell the difference between a mobile phone, a digital camera and the remote controls for the television and the air conditioner. But he does not know how to use them. As for web technologies that he has been exposed to, they include simple learning games on the PC, as well as Skype, which we use to communicate with my parents when they were in India."

"I think a child has to be nearly three years old before he or she can do downloads," Mr Tay adds.

But NPD, in its latest report, Kids & Digital Content, says that children are becoming more tech savvy.

"Without a doubt, kids are digital content natives, seamlessly navigating between traditional and digital sources without missing a step," said Ms Anita Frazier, an NPD Group industry analyst, in a statement recently.

"To kids, there is nothing new or novel about digital sources of entertainment. The real challenge for marketers is to be one step ahead of their competition, provoding the cntent and technology kids crave," she added.

The survey report said that by the time children are seven years old more than one in 10 know how to download content. By age 10, 22 per cent do this and when they are 14, at least 50 per cent do downloads.

Most of the kids, irrespective of age, download games while 25 per cent watch downloaded movies, television, music videos or stream video content.

The report also said that the average time children spend in these activities is 44 minutes. Also, 78 per cent of the users surveyed pay for the content while 70 per cent who use portable digital music players also pay for the use.