Screen time of children increases significantly

According to a new study, the screen time of children and young people has increased significantly during the corona pandemic. During the pandemic, an average increase of 52 percent was observed, the authors led by Sheri Madigan from the University of Calgary, Canada, write in the journal Jama. This corresponds to an average of 84 minutes per day - in addition to the pre-pandemic average of 2.7 hours per day.

Overall, children and young people worldwide spent an average of 4.1 hours a day in front of the screen during the pandemic. The increase was highest among 12 to 18 year olds and among computers, smartphones and tablets. The overall result also included the time spent with television or video games, for example.

For the study, the scientists used data from 46 previous studies, for example from Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Australia. A total of around 29,000 children and adolescents up to the age of 18 with an average age of 9 years were included in these studies, 57 percent of them male and 43 percent female.

In response, the authors called for, among other things, talking to children and young people about the healthy use of devices and planning screen-free time.