Our Children Lost in Videos, 4th Graders Spend 104 Minutes a Day Overdependent on Smartphones

Reversal of Importance Starting from 3rd Grade in Elementary School

A survey has found that children in grades 3 and 4 of elementary school now spend more time using smartphones than watching TV.

The Korea Press Foundation announced on the 13th, through the '2023 Children's Media Usage Survey' report, that children attending daycare centers or kindergartens and those in the lower grades of elementary school spend more time watching TV than using smartphones, but this trend reverses from the 3rd grade of elementary school onward.

The average daily TV viewing time for children attending daycare centers and kindergartens was 72.7 minutes and 66.2 minutes, respectively, which is longer than their smartphone usage time (53.7 minutes and 36.6 minutes). This trend continued even after entering elementary school. First graders used media for 73.1 minutes watching TV and 60.5 minutes on smartphones, while second graders spent 75.0 minutes on TV and 73.2 minutes on smartphones.

The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article. [Image source=Pixabay]

However, from the 3rd grade, smartphone usage surpassed TV viewing with 92.0 minutes on smartphones compared to 77.3 minutes on TV. For 4th graders, the difference was even more pronounced, with 104.4 minutes on smartphones versus 68.6 minutes on TV. Assuming separate usage of TV and smartphones, children watch videos for about 170 minutes, or roughly 3 hours, per day.

For children aged 3 to 9, the primary use of smartphones was watching videos through YouTube and Netflix, accounting for 70.3%. This was followed by gaming at 36.9%, searching for information related to interests at 27.9%, taking and editing photos at 17.2%, communication and conversation at 13.6%, searching for information for learning and assignments at 12.3%, and listening to music at 6.6%.

The age group that used smartphones most for gaming was 3rd graders in elementary school, at 56.2%.

Generally, the most common age for children in Korea to start using smartphones is after age 5 (28.5%). This is followed by ages 3 to under 4 at 14.6%, ages 2 to under 3 at 13.6%, ages 1 year to under 18 months at 12.4%, and ages 18 months to under 2 years at 11.7%.

There are concerns that children's smartphone use may negatively affect sleep, physical activity, and developmental processes. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines in 2019 titled 'Guidelines on Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep for Children Under 5 Years of Age,' recommending that children under 2 years old should not spend sedentary time watching screens such as TV or playing video games.

WHO also recommends that children aged 1 to 4 engage in at least 3 hours of various physical activities daily, and that children aged 2 to 4 should limit sedentary screen time on TV, computers, and mobile devices to no more than 1 hour.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.