New data: Screen time for ages 0 to 8
How much time are kids spending? And what do parents think about it?
Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist and professor at Brown University and mom of two young kids. If you like Techno Sapiens, please consider sharing it with a friend today. Thanks for your support!
5 min read
We were recently sitting down to dinner in my house, a flurry of activity—milk cups filled, spaghetti doled out, chicken cut up into tiny pieces—giving way to an equally frantic period of eating. As the kids threw aside their forks and began shoving fistfuls of spaghetti into their gaping mouths, my husband tried to restore some order.
He turned to our three-year-old, and aiming to spark conversation, asked, What was the best part of your day?
My son sat, staring thoughtfully out into the distance, gulped down a swig of milk, and then looked at me.
Mom, can we watch the video of the guy making barbecue sauce on your phone?
My husband, clearly puzzled—given that our son has never once eaten barbecue sauce—tried to mask his confusion.
Oh wow! What video is that? he asked.
I noted that, at some point, we had been talking about barbecue sauce, and not knowing how it is made, we looked it up on YouTube together. This was at least a month ago.
My son had not spoken of barbecue sauce a single time since that day. I assumed he had forgotten about it completely. But now, he launched into an enthusiastic description.
There were four kinds! He shared. He cooked them on the stove! There was a white one! And a brown one!
As he started listing off ingredients (ketchup! sugar!), I looked at my husband. What else is he remembering from YouTube videos that we’re not aware of? Are we not watching enough of them, if he’s this excited about a mediocre cooking demonstration? Have I inadvertently turned our three-year-old into a raging barbecue sauce enthusiast?1
Anyway, how’s screen time going at your house?
To the data!
Do you have a child aged 8 or younger? Have you ever wondered what other families are doing when it comes to screen time, besides teaching their kids the difference between Alabama White and Eastern Carolina vinegar-style?2
Well, I’m happy to report that this week, Common Sense Media released its latest data on media use in kids ages 0 to 8. They’ve been tracking the numbers since 2011, and this is the first new data we’ve gotten for this age group since early 2020 (before COVID), so this is big.
The latest is a nationally-representative survey of 1,578 parents of children age 8 or younger.
Let’s take a look!
How much are kids using screens?
The short answer is: a lot.
Kids ages 8 and under are spending an average of 2 hours, 27 minutes on screens each day.
Here’s a breakdown by age:
This also varies across different groups. For example:
Boys spend about 30 minutes more per day than girls (2:38 vs. 2:07)
Children in lower-income households spend nearly twice as much time as those in higher-income households (3:48 vs. 1:52)
What are they doing on screens?
47% of kids watch TV or videos, for an average of 1 hour, 28 minutes per day
26% of kids use mobile devices (smartphone/tablet) to play games or watch videos
8% play video games (on a computer or console), for an average of 38 minutes of gaming (across devices) per day
29% have ever used AI for learning about school-related material, though only 1% of kids use an AI chatbot everyday
Kids also spend an average of 5 minutes video chatting per day
What about other types of media?
“Media” can also include non-screen activities, like reading or listening to music.
54% of kids read or are read to everyday, for an average of 32 minutes
39% of kids listen to music everyday, for an average of 33 minutes3
6% of kids listen to podcasts, stories, or audiobooks4 everyday, for an average of 4 minutes
How does this compare to prior years?
Watching TV or videos has decreased since 2020 (from 1:45 down to 1:28)
Playing video games has increased since 2020 (from 23 to 38 minutes)
Listening to music has increased since 2020 (from 25 to 33 minutes)
Everything else has stayed pretty consistent
Do kids have their own devices?
Many of them do.
By age 8, 1 in 4 kids (23%) also have their own cell phone.5 And here’s the percentage of kids with their own tablet, by age:
When (and why) are they using screens?
Here’s the percentage of parents who say they let their kids use screens in the following situations sometimes or often:
66% to keep them occupied while the parent gets things done
57% to help them learn or experience something new
56% to bond with or relax together with them
47% to reward good behavior
44% to keep them occupied in public (doctor’s office, grocery store, restaurant)
25% to calm them down when they’re angry, sad, or upset
In addition, more than 1 in 3 kids (36%) use screens at least some nights to fall asleep.
What do parents think?
In thinking about the overall effect of media on their children’s well-being:
40% of parents say it’s mostly negative
34% say it’s mostly positive
25% say it’s neutral.
Also, 35% of parents think their child spends too much time with media, but 59% believe it’s just the right amount.
Parents’ main concerns about media are children spending too much time on it (80%), affecting their child’s attention span (79%), exposure to sexual (76%) or violent (75%) content, and impacts on mental health (75%).
At the same time, parents are enthusiastic about their kids learning new things from screen media (75%), seeing positive depictions (of kindness, love) (72%), discovering or exploring new interests (72%), and connecting with friends or family (71%).
And how do parents think it’s going? Depends on their child’s age:
Summing up
As many techno sapiens know, I strongly believe there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to media use in kids. What works for some families does not work for others, and the effects depend on many factors, including what’s actually happening on screens, who kids are, and what’s going on in their lives outside of screens.
That said, there are aspects of this data that give me pause. For one, these numbers do reflect a level of screen time that is pretty far above “official” recommendations from the AAP and WHO (i.e., no or limited screens for kids under 2, and 1 hour or less per day for ages 2 to 5).
Those recommendations are certainly not ironclad, and of course, the quality of screen time in many cases matters more than quantity. But for some kids, I worry that screen time could crowd out other important activities, like quality time with family and peers, physical activity, play, and reading (or being read to).
There’s also the question of when and why kids are using screens. There are so many excellent uses of screens, many of which were cited by parents in the survey—bonding or relaxing with kids, helping them learn, encouraging them to explore their burgeoning interests [though, oddly, no specific mention of barbecue sauce in this data]. But other uses may be less helpful for families in the long run. For example, some evidence suggests that using screens to calm kids down when they’re upset can backfire, as can relying on screens to help kids fall asleep.
Ultimately, to me, this data suggests that parents need more support. Their confidence in managing screen use seems to waver as kids get older, and a high percentage raise significant concerns about about how much time their kids are spending on screens and what they’re seeing on them.
There’s clearly a gap between the “official guidance” and what parents can realistically carry out in their homes right now. When it comes to screens, there are many different approaches that can work—and we need to help families find the one that works for them.
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In all seriousness, I happen to think that using YouTube to show kids something they’re curious about is a great use of screens. And for those wondering, the four kinds of barbecue sauce were: (1) sweet, (2) vinegar-based, (3) mustard-based, and (4) white. I’m a huge fan of the first three (maybe from my time living in North Carolina?), but had never heard of the fourth, so by the time we got to that point in the video, I was on the edge of my seat.
Besides videos of barbecue sauce-making, another popular request from my three-year-old right now are pictures of x-rays? He’s gotten very interested in looking around the room, picking an object (shoe, refrigerator, soccer ball) and asking to see an x-ray of it on my phone. My search history is a thing to behold.
Apparently, my family is one of the 49% of families (with kids ages 0 to 8) who own a smart speaker. This is typically how we listen to music, and my three-year-old is now able to request his own music by shouting ALEXA! Also, for those who have been following along on his intense interest in sea shanties and Celtic folk music, I have good news: he’s currently in an unexpected, but much welcome, Paul Simon phase. Specifically, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard and You Can Call me Al. He spends most of the latter asking “when the ‘call me Al' part is coming on again,” but still. Progress!
Longer post to come on this topic, but we recently got a Toniebox (the audio player for kids), and it has changed our lives for the better. Highly recommend.
By the way, an interesting tidbit about kids’ phone ownership from this data: among kids with a cell phone, nearly 1 in 5 (19%) have a smartphone with limited or no apps or Internet access (like a Pinwheel, Gabb, Troomi, or Bark phone). A full 79% have a real smartphone, and 3% have a basic phone.
I really liked seeing data about other people's screen time practices, and it was good for me to see the real-life distance between the advice and reality.
My (5 year old) kid really loves youtube videos where someone restores old toys, or where hamsters do elaborate mazes; he likes old Winnie the Pooh cartoons and Gabby's Dollhouse. None of these ever end up on the recommended educational lists for TV! Sometimes our total screen time tends more towards an hour and a half, instead of under an hour, and I know that he sometimes gets TV at his pre-k. We usually co-watch, but sometimes I fall asleep or read while he watches an old favorite.
I say all this because reading parenting posts about screen time can make all that feel like I've done something wrong or unusual, even with all our precautions and boundaries -- it's nice to know that there is a wide variation out there, and that we're tending toward the more restrictive end of things. I agree that there are outside pressures -- life stress, financial stress, etc. -- that make it nigh-impossible for many parents to avoid screens.
My mother also always reminds me that there are plenty of kids from her and my generation that used to gulp down hours of TV, or watch a full movie every other night. There are kids who grow up loving (and making!) movies in part because they were given the opportunity to have that screen time. It's worth considering how much narrative engagement or learning the kid is doing from the screen time, I guess I'm saying, and to recognize that this isn't an ENTIRELY new thing.
Thank you for this discussion! I would love to see data related to neurodivergent use, as for some neurodiverse kids, regulating via technology is actually really helpful. I would be curious how other data lines up.