(TNND) — A typical teenager is logging over eight hours a day of screen time for entertainment, according to a new report from Common Sense Media.Most kids have their own cellphone by age 11.And many kids start spending substantial amounts of time with both social media and artificial intelligence chatbots before they even hit their teen years.Common Sense Media, a leading youth advocacy organization, published a survey-based report Tuesday on how tweens and teens engage with tech and media.Common Sense Media has recently released reports focused on the safety of specific products, such as ChatGPT for Teens, or how AI use in schoolwork risks shortcutting learning. But this is the organization’s first broad survey of youth media and tech use in five years.Michael Robb, Common Sense Media’s head of research, said media and tech are so much a part of kids’ lives that they’re “almost like air” they breathe.But he said the media landscape has “changed pretty dramatically” since their last big survey, which they call a census.“And this is an opportunity to try to get our arms around the many, many ways in which kids are interfacing and interacting with media and tech throughout the day, outside of school,” he said.The survey included kids from age 9 to 17.Personal smartphone ownership nearly doubles from age 9 to 10, from 24% to 47%.By age 11, 57% of kids have their own phone.By age 17, 94% do.“It continues to be surprising to me about how many kids already have their phones, have a smartphone, by age 10,” Robb said. “And that’s after years of campaigns like Wait Until 8th and the conversation sparked by The Anxious Generation.”Over two-thirds of tweens have their own tablet device.A similar share of teens has their own laptop or desktop computer, though Common Sense Media noted a “digital divide” resulting in less computer access for kids living in lower-income households.Nearly half of teens think they’re spending too much time on screens for entertainment.The typical teen spends over eight hours on screens. The typical tween spends five hours.Common Sense Media said kids are likely multitasking during some of that screen time. They might be scrolling on social media while a show plays in the background, for example.Teens spend over three hours on TV and videos, two hours gaming, two hours on social media, and an hour using AI, according to the new report.Teens spend close to two hours a day on short-form video, such as TikTok or YouTube Shorts.Teens said they use YouTube and TikTok the most among various social media platforms.Half of tweens – kids 9 to 12 – said they use social media for nearly an hour and a half on a given day. A similar share of tweens said they use AI, even though Common Sense Media said those platforms aren’t meant for kids that young.“Social media and AI companies are doing a bad job of keeping younger kids off their apps,” Robb said.Common Sense Media found heavy media and tech usage doesn’t necessarily lead to great enjoyment for kids.For example, 86% of teens said they use social media, but only 47% of users said they enjoy it a lot.Similarly, 77% of teens report using AI in their free time, but just 11% of users said they enjoy it a lot.Robb said kids spend a lot of their time on social media apps built around algorithmic feeds, designed to capture their attention.And he said some kids might feel obligated to be on social media as a way of keeping up with their friends. But he said those platforms can also feed kids content they don’t want to see or content that makes them feel worse about themselves.Photo by Mireya Acierto/Getty Images, fileRobb said the survey results show that a lot of parents are facing cellphone decisions for their kids by the time their kids reach fourth or fifth grade.“But just because a child has a phone doesn’t mean they actually need access to every app on it,” he said. “And not every fourth- or fifth-grader needs a phone.”Robb said strict screen-time limits can be difficult for parents to enforce.“And I think there’s lots of research to suggest that time on devices matters less than what it’s replacing and what’s happening on the devices,” he said. “So, if I was a parent, I’d really be looking to try to protect the specific activities that you don’t want to get lost. So, things like protecting sleep. That’s a really important one. So, keep phones out of the bedroom overnight. Protecting outdoor time. Protecting reading, because reading drops precipitously as kids get older. Protecting family time. Those are all things that are worth guarding in environments where there is just a lot of screen time.”Robb said parents can make it harder for children to access unsuitable content by using parental controls built into various platforms, including social media sites. Those tools can also give parents more insight into who their kids are communicating with online.And he said parents might want to have short, ongoing conversations with their kids about the growing use of AI to ensure their kids aren’t becoming overly reliant on it, potentially harming their learning or their ability to socialize.“It’s easy to be fatalistic and just say, ‘Well, kids are going to find a way if they want to find a way.’ And that’s true to some extent, but there is friction that you can put up as a parent,” Robb said.
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