How many hours a day do children and teenagers spend in front of screens?

According to a  study by the Gasol Foundation, children and adolescents spendmore than three hours a day in front of screens, a study that warns that this habit negatively affects the sleep, physical activity and emotional well-being ofminors.

This is reflected in the report "Pantallas, infancia y adolescencia: situación actual y retos", prepared in the Spanish state, which provides data collected in the period 2019-2020 and 2022-2023.

The sample consists of 6,170 participants, of whom 56.2 per cent are under 13 years of age and the remaining 43.8 per cent are adolescents up to 16 years of age.

In general, they far exceed what experts recommend, which is to spend a maximum of 120 minutes a day in front of the screen. 

"Screens are gaining weight in childhood and adolescence. Not as an isolated result, but as an indirect factor that can affect sleep, physical activity, nutrition or emotional well-being, "former basketball player Pau Gasol, president of the Gasol Foundation, explained in the presentation of the report.

Increased use in adolescents and vulnerable environments

 

Teenagers spend the most time in front of the screen among these groups, with an average of 284.8 minutes a day, and as the courses go on, the number of minutes increases, as the use of screens reaches its peak in the last year of secondary school, with an average of 296 minutes a day.

As far as the socio-economic level is concerned, the number of hours spent on screen increases in families withlower incomes and those without university education.

By gender, boys use screens more.

Distractions and lower academic performance 

 

Twenty-nine percent of the students surveyed in that report admit to having "regular distractions related to screen use."

Experts have explained that these distractions are directly related to academic performance.