Kids spend more time on Internet and gaming than watching television

Whilst the amount of time that some kids spend in front of the television has caused concern it has recently been revealed that many now spend more time on the Internet and gaming than watching TV.

Over recent years many people have expressed concern over how long kids spend watching the television. However, it appears that many youngsters are now ditching the television in favour of going online and using the Internet or using their gaming consoles, with the results of a recent study showing that a growing number of kids aged between five and sixteen years tend to spend more time using the Internet or playing games than they do watching television.

With many homes now having high speed broadband access at a set monthly fee many kids have been given a greater opportunity to spend time online. The study found that the most popular site amongst kids in this age group was YouTube and this was closely followed by social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In addition to this the popularity of gaming consoles such as X-Box and Wii has resulted in kids spending more time playing games.

The study showed that overall kids in this age bracket spent around six hours a day in front of screens, watching television, playing games, or going on the Internet. In all around eighteen hundred children were asked to respond to the poll, and the figures showed that they spent around 2.7 hours per day watching television, 1.5 hours per day in front of the computer screen on the Internet, and 1.3 hours per day on games consoles, which meant that the combination of games console and Internet use exceeded the amount of time spent watching television.

There are concerns that the amount of time kids are now spending in front of screens is impacting on activities such as reading, with the number of children that said they read for pleasure falling from eighty percent to seventy five percent.