Six Hours A Day In Front Of A Screen?

A new UK study finds that kids are spending up to six hours a day in front on computers, games consoles, and televisions.

A new report from the annual survey by UK market research company Childwise has found that kids cram up to six hour a day in front of screens – TV, computers, and games consoles – and a third of them insist they can’t live without their computer.

The survey, which covers those between the ages of five and 16, finds that girls are more likely to chat to friends online at night, although all teens are more likely to use computers for socializing than doing homework. Some 62% have a profile on a social networking site, while 30% run a blog.

On average they spend 1.7 hours a day online, but for one in six of them that figure rises to over three hours a day online – and that’s on top of the 1.5 hours they spend on their games consoles. Then there’s the 2.7 hours of television – although they’ve become adept multitaskers, doing these thing simultaneously.

Quoted in the Guardian, Childwise’s research director, Rosemary Duff, said:

"It’s so clear that a lot of children are fluent communicators but not in a conventional way. They aren’t readers, they are reliant on spellchecks.”

"They are a generation abandoning print and paper, and the whole integration of technology and the way they glide from one to the other is seamless. They will be surfing the net, talking to a friend and downloading a track simultaneously.”

"It’s hard for the older generation to understand what’s going on with their children because they communicate in a completely different way."