A recent poll indicates Australian children are now spending far more of their time on the internet than they are watching TV* .
According to results from Roy Morgan’s Young Australians Survey, Aussie kids aged six to 13 spend an average of almost 12 hours a week using the internet. This is almost double the ~6 hours a week they were spending online in 2008.
"The internet is taking time away from TV in large part because it’s what many kids now treat as television," said Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research.
"Watching online videos is the most common internet activity, something two-thirds of kids do in an average four weeks. Almost one in four kids say YouTube is their number one favourite website.”
However, it should be noted almost 30 percent of internet usage is occurring outside the home. While at home, Australian kids are spending almost eight and a half hours a week using the internet; which is still around two fewer hours than they spend watching TV.
So is it a case of kids also watching more TV than they were nine years ago? No - in 2008, Australian kids were spending more than 14.5 hours a week in front of the box; by 2016, this had declined to 10.5 hours.
But if you put the two together, it does indicate our young 'uns are spending a lot more time in front of some sort of screen.
Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is a debate for another arena. But it does drive home the importance of teaching kids about staying safe online and brings up issue relating to parental supervision.
Over in the UK, it's a similar story with children spending more time on the web.
Results of a survey published late last year by Ofcom (the UK's communications regulator), indicate the internet has overtaken television as the top media pastime for children in the UK also.
UK kids aged 5-15 are spending around 15 hours each week online and time spent in front of the TV has dropped to 13 hours 36 minutes. Again, streaming video features heavily in their activities and YouTube is one of the most popular online destinations for this group; with 73% using the site.
* that large screen in your living room that is now either often dark and gathering dust or also probably also hooked up to the web.
