Edith Cowan University professor Lelia Green, who will outline her study to the University of Canberra on Wednesday morning, said preliminary research in Britain and the United States revealed a five-fold increase in tablet usage by children aged up to eight years during 2012-13.

"It would be very difficult to find an Australian child under the age of three who hasn't had access to a smart phone or tablet because either their parents or a family friend would have given it to them at some point in time," she said.

"When you're talking about touch and swipe technologies where you only need to touch one button, that's almost built for babies as that's the way they interact with their environment – this is a new phenomenon."

Veronika Cox, a Monash-based mother of two-year-old Madelyn, said infants and young children were becoming adept at learning to use technology, although that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"Lots of people I know, myself included, have gone so far as to get rid of the television in the home so little ones don't have the constant urge for technology," she said.

"I have noticed amazing improvements in her temperament, sleep patterns, ability to entertain herself through play and general happiness."

But Professor Green said many parents were understandably anxious about whether their children would be harmed or exposed to risk by using tablet devices given the lack of available research.

"Parents are the new experts in the use of these technologies and we want to find out why parents are allowing their children to use tablets, where they allow them to do so, and what rules they establish," she said.

The Australian Research Council has invested $350,000 into the study, which is expected to start in mid-2015 with the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Dublin Institute of Technology.

"Toddlers want to be a part of the world that everyone they know lives in, and that's often the thing they are so excited about," she said.

"When you're talking about touch and swipe technologies where you only need to touch one button, that's almost built specifically for babies as that's the way they interact with their environment."

"This gives them extraordinary pleasure as babies and toddlers are passive in the sense they have very few areas in which they are autonomous agents and this gives them a whole new area to explore."

Professor Green hopes the study will bring assurances to many parents, who worry about their child's use of technology and fear they may be doing something wrong.

"Some are very concerned that others may be judge them for using their tablets and smart phones as baby sitters, or that their use may lead to brain changing or other scare stories," she said.

"They feel guilty about themselves for what they are doing but in fact these are new technologies that are part of everyday life."

Professor Green said previous studies had shown banning young children from technology could have potentially damaging consequences.

"To deny children inclusion in part of everyday life sets these items up as objects of fascination, which is something we arguably do with alcohol too," she said.

"Toddlers are now seeing their parents using tablets almost daily but if they become a taboo item, then we're setting them up for an unusual and possibly unhelpful set of experiences with this technology"

Professor Green said researchers from three universities were still in the planning stage of their study but were already willing to test a few guidelines for parents.

"We do want to test them in the field but we are pretty sure one is to be sure you don't give a tablet or smartphone to a child when they go to bed," she said.

"When parents use their smartphones or tablets with their children and do so as a way of spending time together there is unlikely to be any risk at all."