The amount of time children spend glued to
a screen has risen dramatically in the last 20 years, a new report suggests.
Children aged five to 16 spend an average
of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen compared with around three
hours in 1995, according to market research firm Childwise.
Teenaged boys spend the longest, with an
average of eight hours.
Eight-year-old girls spend the least -
three-and-a-half hours, according to the study.
Screen time is made up of time spent
watching TV, playing games consoles, using a mobile, computer or tablet.
It finds that teenaged girls now spend an
average of seven-and-a-half- hours watching screens, compared with 3.5 hours of
TV viewing in 1995.
Younger children fare slightly better in
1995, five- to- 10-year-olds averaged around two-and-a-half-hours of TV.
Children's TV viewing habits have changed
dramatically, with the majority now watching television via catch-up services
and YouTube rather than the traditional TV set, according to the report.