Screen Time Dominates Kid's Play

Do you have the feeling your child spends most of its life glued to a screen? The good news is, you're not alone in thinking this, the bad news - your assumption is probably correct. According to a survey of U.S. parents and caregivers by Gallup, the average child spends the largest share of its free time on screen-based activities. When looking at 2 to 10 year olds, parents reported that their kids spend 18.6 hours on screen-based play in a usual week.

As our infographic shows, this trumps indoor screen-free play by four hours. While the majority of respondents in the survey said they would like their children to play more outdoors, parents are apparently too often left to lament poor weather conditions (36 percent), do not feel it is safe to send their child out without an adult (34 percent) or say that there is a lack of other kids or a suitable area to play (33 percent).

Only three percent of parents said they want their child to play more with electronic devices, but again, a number of barriers were cited as to why this is often not possible. The top hindrance is simply that the child wants to use these devices more than anything else (58 percent). Perhaps worryingly, 31 percent also said that their child needs guidance to find non-screen-based things to do when playing indoors.