Kids spent 8 hours per day on media, says study

The study conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that children between the ages of 8 to 18 spend 7 hours and 38 minutes in front of the television, Internet, video games, and using mobile devices. This shows a significant increase compared to the 6 hours and 21 minutes children spent consuming media in 2004.

Consumed by media
Victoria Rideout, co-author of the study and vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation said, "The thing that jumps out is the enormous amount of time kids spend consuming media.

"It's more than seven and a half hours a day, seven days a week. That's more than 53 hours a week -- more time than grownups spend in a full-time job."

The results of the study were obtained through a 40-minute survey of 2,002 students between 8 to 18 years of age, from October 2008 to May 2009. A media diary was also kept by 702 students.

Based on the survey, the researchers found out the amount of time children spent on different forms of media. Television took an average of 4 hours and 29 minutes of their time each day, while music and computers took an average of 2 hours and 31 minutes and less than 90 minutes, respectively.

Children also spent a considerable amount of time playing video games, which is an average of 1 hour and 13 minutes each day. Print media took 38 minutes of their time while movies took 25 minutes.

Children’s exposure
Media has definitely taken a big amount of children’s time and this may be due to the increasing amount of media devices available in their environment.

Cell phones, which are now considered as multimedia devices, are possessed by 66 percent of children compared to only 39 percent in 2004.

MP3 players are also owned by 76 percent of children today compared to only 18 percent of children 5 years ago.

At home, children are also exposed to media. The study found that even during meal time, the television are turned on in 64 percent of homes. It is kept on even when no one is watching in 45 percent of homes.

Media is still present even in children’s rooms with 71 percent of them having their own television and 50 percent having a game console.

Parental control lacking effect
This increase in children’s media exposure may also be due to the lack of rules set by parents.

Rules on television use were imposed only by 28 percent of parents, while rules on video game use were placed by 30 percent of parents.

Use of computers was limited by only 36 percent of parents. In homes where parents monitored their child’s exposure to media, children spent three hours less consuming media.

Exposure to media is not a bad thing in itself, but spending too much time on it may affect children’s performance. Children who spent more than 16 hours a day on media devices got poor grades in school, while those who consumed media less than three hours each day got better grades.