--- title: Kids Spending More Time on Mobile Devices Than Ever description: Kids are spending more than two hours per day looking at screens, according to a Common Sense Media report. canonical: https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-19T17:04:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:55:39.668Z article:section: Health og:title: Kids Are Spending More Time on Mobile Devices Than Ever Before og:description: And almost half have their own tablets og:url: https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22410c685ee37695/6988e29acf40a812a2c49e20/kids-mobile-devices.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6000 og:image:height: 3375 og:image:alt: Kids Mobile Device Hours og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kids Are Spending More Time on Mobile Devices Than Ever Before twitter:description: And almost half have their own tablets twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22410c685ee37695/6988e29acf40a812a2c49e20/kids-mobile-devices.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kids Are Spending More Time On Mobile Devices Than Ever Before > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=4f2718ea-0729-4117-a769-a1a908faf99f&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 19, 2017 5:04 PM UTC  Boy and girl watching cartoons online with the iPad tablet sitting in the sofa at home. Boy and girl watching cartoons online with the iPad tablet sitting in the sofa at home. Artur Debat#68614—Moment Editorial/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 19, 2017 5:04 PM UTC Almost half of young children now have their own [tablet](http://time.com/money/4384649/tablet-computer-back-to-school/), a new report says. According to [the report](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-kids-age-zero-to-eight-2017), which comes from Common Sense Media, those tablets are seeing plenty of use. Kids younger than eight are reportedly spending an average of two hours and 19 minutes per day glued to screens. Roughly 30 percent of that time is spent on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Forty-two percent of youngsters have a personal tablet. While [screen use](http://motto.time.com/4734839/five-ways-to-transform-your-kids-screen-time/) has held fairly steady over time—kids in 2011 spent two hours and 16 minutes per day looking at screens, for example—the medium of choice has changed dramatically, according to the Common Sense Census. Television is still the most popular screen, but daily time spent watching the tube has dropped by 11 minutes since 2011\. During the same time period, meanwhile, mobile device use has exploded from five minutes per day to its current 48 minutes. Meanwhile, kids are still spending about a half hour per day reading or being read to—and, interestingly enough, the vast majority of that time is spent with print media, not e-readers. Still, the uptick in mobile usage may be cause for concern. “Mobile device use is more individual, immersive and on-demand, and it influences interpersonal dynamics differently and can be harder to break yourself (or your child) away from,” writes Dr. Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan, in an opening letter for the Common Sense Media report. Studies have also linked excessive device use among youth to everything from [speech delays](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170504083141.htm) to decreased [emotional intelligence](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214003227). The American Academy of Pediatrics [recommends](https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/american-academy-of-pediatrics-announces-new-recommendations-for-childrens-media-use.aspx) that children between the ages of two and five spend no more than an hour per day on screens, and suggests “consistent limits” for kids older than six. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/"},"headline":"Kids Are Spending More Time On Mobile Devices Than Ever Before","datePublished":"2017-10-19T17:04:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:55:39.668Z","description":"And almost half have their own tablets","url":"https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/","keywords":["health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22410c685ee37695/6988e29acf40a812a2c49e20/kids-mobile-devices.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22410c685ee37695/6988e29acf40a812a2c49e20/kids-mobile-devices.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kids Mobile Device Hours","caption":"Kids Mobile Device Hours","creditText":"Artur Debat#68614—Moment Editorial/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4989275/young-children-tablets-mobile-devices/","name":"Kids Are Spending More Time On Mobile Devices Than Ever Before"}}]}] ```