Democracy Dies in Darkness

Tweens, teens and screens: The average time kids spend watching online videos has doubled in 4 years

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October 29, 2019 at 2:06 p.m. EDT
American children have doubled their consumption of online videos, new data show, averaging nearly an hour a day. What’s more, they’re doing so on services such as YouTube that are supposedly off limits to children younger than 13. (iStock)

More than twice as many young people watch videos every day as did four years ago, and the average time spent watching videos — mostly on YouTube — has roughly doubled, to an hour each day.

That’s according to a survey released Tuesday by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that tracks young people’s tech habits. The report found that overall screen time among young people hasn’t changed much since 2015. On average, American 8-to-12-year-olds spent 4 hours and 44 minutes on screen media each day. And teens average 7 hours and 22 minutes — not including time spent using screens for school or homework.