Children prefer web to TV- survey
- Added:
- Jan 22, 2009
The average UK child spends nearly six hours each day in front of a TV or computer and prefers using their computers to watching the TV, according to new research.
Market research firm ChildWise conducted the survey, which is now in its fifteenth year. The firm asked 1,800 children from more than 90 schools to name the one thing they couldn't live without.
The survey found that one in three children named their computer, compared to one in five who 'need' the TV. In addition, one in four five-year-olds can access the internet in their bedrooms.
Around half of teenagers have similar levels of Web access, and spend nearly two and a half hours a day on social-networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace.
According to the survey, children spend around 1.7 hours a day online on average. One in six admitted to spending more than three hours a day surfing the web.
In addition, they spend an average 1.5 hours playing on a games console. They also watch 2.7 hours of TV on average a day, the survey found. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they read books for pleasure.
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According to ChildWise's Rosemary Duff: "[Children] are watching the same amount of TV but there is a change in the way children communicate and get their information ... a lot of children are fluent communicators but not in a conventional way. They aren't readers, they are reliant on spellchecks.
"They are a generation abandoning print and paper, and the whole integration of technology and the way they glide from one to the other is seamless. They will be surfing the net, talking to a friend and downloading a track simultaneously.It's hard for the older generation to understand what's going on with their children because they communicate in a completely different way." Duff added.
