FEED Issue 25

6 NEWSFEED Updates & Upgrades

BREAKING NEWS FROM THE STREAMING SECTOR

TIME TO PUT KIDS’ PHONES TO BED?

According to a report from Childwise, the majority of children now own a phone by the age of seven. It indicates that the devices have become a fundamental part of life for most young people, with many admitting they are fearful of being without their phone and more than half sleep with it by their bed. On average, children spend three hours and 20 minutes online each day. Childwise found that YouTube is the overall favourite site or app, followed by Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Fortnite.

53% of youngsters (based on a survey of 2,167 UK five- to 16-year-olds) owned mobile phones by the age of seven. By the age of 11, 90% had their own device, and phone ownership was “almost universal” once children reached secondary school. Thirty-nine per cent said they could not live without their phone, an increase from 33% last year. Teenagers aged 15 and 16 were most concerned about being without their phone, the report found. Of those questioned, 57% said they always slept with their phone by their bed,

44% said they would feel uncomfortable in a place without phone signal, while 42% admitted to being “constantly worried” about their phone running out of charge. Simon Leggett, research director at Childwise, said that mobile phones now “dominate” children’s lives. However, it can be difficult to parent a child’s use of the technology. “The moment a child owns a phone, it can be a challenge to monitor what your child is accessing online because it’s such a private technology that most keep, literally, close to their chest.”

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