Generation of child web addicts - Seven out of ten take their phone to bed
Generation
of child web addicts: Youngsters are becoming so obsessed with the internet
they spend more time on YouTube than with friends as parents struggle to keep
control of their online usage
·
Shocking
scale of children's internet obsession revealed by new Ofcom study
·
Seven out of
ten take their phone to bed and even under-5s spend hours online
·
A fifth of
children 8-12 are on social media – despite supposed ban on under-13s
·
A growing
number of parents admit to having 'lost control' of children's habits
·
Children have become such screen addicts they are
abandoning their friends and hobbies, a major report warns today.
Researchers found under-fives spend an hour and 16
minutes a day online. Their screen time rises to four hours and 16 minutes when
gaming and television are included.
Youngsters
aged 12 to 15 average nearly three hours a day on the web – plus two more hours
watching TV. The study said YouTube was ‘a near permanent feature’ of
many young lives, and seven in ten of those aged 12 to 15 took smartphones to
bed.
It concluded: ‘Children were watching people on YouTube
pursuing hobbies that they did not do themselves or had recently given up
offline.’
A growing number of parents admitted to researchers that
they had lost control of their children’s online habits.
Campaigners described the report from media watchdog
Ofcom as frightening.
‘In the early years, children need interaction with other
people, and play – it is key to their social skills,’ said Sue Palmer of the
group Toxic Childhood.
‘If that doesn’t happen when they are small, I don’t
know where it leads. There is the screen time itself, and then there is what
the screen time is displacing.’
The annual report, which was based on 2,000 interviews,
also revealed that:
·
Children aged five to 15 spend 20 minutes more online a
day than watching TV;
·
One in five pre-schoolers and two fifths of five- to
eight-year-olds have an iPad or tablet device;
·
A fifth of children aged eight to 12 are on social media
– despite a supposed ban on under-13s;
·
Nearly one in five children aged 12 to 16 have
accidentally spent money online.
Children aged three and four still watch more television
than online videos, but their TV consumption is shrinking whilst their time
online is rocketing.
Many flock to YouTube and spend hours watching
child-friendly videos such as how to make slime or draw animals. Others seek
out ‘unboxing’ videos in which YouTube stars unwrap new products.
Some youngsters are becoming so obsessed with YouTube
celebrities that they idolise them as role models, the Ofcom report said.
Some upload videos of their own, hoping to make a career
for themselves. Disturbingly, many watch the lifestyle ‘vloggers’ pursuing
hobbies and interacting with friends instead of doing so themselves.
·
Many new parents consider the opportunity to
hand their children an iPad or tablet to play with to be a godsend - but
figures show more youngster are turning away from old hobbies
Ofcom spoke to a number of children who had given up
their hobbies – such as drawing and doing scooter stunts – in order to watch
films on YouTube.
One child who described herself as ‘very arty’ admitted
she rarely tried any crafts, and preferred to watch others being creative
online.
Some youngsters said they socialised with friends less,
because it was ‘too much effort’ to go out when they could interact with them
online instead.
‘YouTube was a near permanent feature of many children’s
lives, used throughout the day,’ researchers said.
But many children who go online to watch harmless videos
find themselves watching deeply disturbing material. Often they come across
unsuitable content by accident, when they are searching for something else.
Sometimes they simply seek out material they are too
young to view. They are also led to it by YouTube’s own algorithm which feeds
them suggestions based on their tastes, Ofcom found.
Only one per cent of under-5s have a smartphone but by 11
that has grown to 35 per cent
Children prefer YouTube to old-fashioned television or TV
on-demand services because they ‘could easily access exactly what they wanted
to watch and were being served with an endless stream of recommendations
tailored exactly to their taste,’ the report said.
Many of the parents involved in the research were shocked
to learn what their children had been watching. Two fifths of those with
children aged five to 15 feared that their children were being pressured to
spend money on the web.
Half worried about tech firms harvesting too much
information about their children, and around a third feared their offspring
would see unsuitable content or become radicalised by extremists.
Despite these fears, many parents of teens admitted that
they struggle to control the amount of time their children spent online.
Part of the problem was that youngsters prefer to watch
content on the web on their own, according to the report.
They view watching live TV as a family activity, but feel
far more comfortable on a device which they can control in private.
Children often use multiple screens at once – but the
hours they spend on each are counted separately for the Ofcom research.
They are also using multiple social media profiles to
project a ‘picture-perfect self’ and to avoid bullying. The number of those
aged 12 to 15 being bullied online nearly doubled from 5 per cent in 2017 to 9
per cent last year.
Youngsters now often use several accounts to project
different versions of themselves so their ‘real self’ can avoid social stigma,
the report said.
More than half of the children surveyed said social media
presents an unrealistic image, and researchers said glamorous and flattering
filters to make them look ‘prettier’ were being used in many cases. About 20
per cent of girls said they needed to look popular online ‘all the time’
compared with only 11 per cent of boys.
The watchdog found children increasingly faced bullying
through services such as WhatsApp.
Last week the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell blamed
Instagram for her death, after she viewed posts on the social network that
glamourised suicide and self-harm.
The Google-owned YouTube platform has also come under
fire for allowing jihadists, far-Right activists and hate preachers.
How iPads
can stunt development
Letting pre-school children play on iPads and watch lots
of television harms their development, researchers have found.
They said those who were exposed to the most screen time
at the age of two showed poorer general skills by the age of three.
The researchers, from the University of Calgary in
Canada, said: ‘Digital media and screens are now ubiquitous in the lives of
children.
‘Although some benefits of high-quality and interactive
screen time have been identified, excessive screen time has been associated
with deleterious physical, behavioural, and cognitive outcomes. The study
examined outcomes during a critical period of growth and maturation, revealing
that screen time can impinge on children’s ability to develop optimally.
‘When observing screens, they may be missing important
opportunities to practice and master interpersonal, motor, and communication
skills.’
The study, published in the JAMA Pediatrics medical
journal, tracked 2,400 children.
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