01/22/10
Report confirms kids spend a lot of time connected to the internet
If parents think that kids today are spending more time today connected to electronics be it online, in front of a TV or holding an iPod, it's because they probably are. A recently released report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day – which adds up to 53 hours a week and often suffering schoolwork, as the heaviest users reported the lowest grades. “The amount of time young people spend with media has grown to where it's even more than a full-time work week,” said Drew Altman, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “When children are spending this much time doing anything, we need to understand how it's affecting them – for good and bad.” The report said that kids spend more than 1.5 hours in front of a computer with the top online activity being social networking at 22 minutes a day. Three-quarters of all 7th-12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site, it said. PC World reported that the study totals did not include two-plus hours a day kids spend texting, and talking on the phone.
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