According to the brief information shared by the agency, approximately half of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 had 4 hours or more of screen time per day between July 2021 and December 2023. 22.8% had 3 hours of screen time per day, 17.8% had 2 hours, 6.1% had 1 hour, and only 3% had less than 1 hour of screen time.
The authors noted that teens self-reported their screen time on a typical weekday, excluding time spent on schoolwork.
During the same time period, nearly 1 in 4 of teens who reported 4 or more hours of daily screen time had experienced symptoms of anxiety (27.1%) or depression (25.9%) in the previous two weeks. Anxiety and depression symptoms were significantly reduced by 12.3% and 9.5%, respectively, in teens with less than 4 hours of daily screen time.
According to the latest report, although screen time was mostly equal for girls and boys, teenagers and those living in metropolitan areas were more likely to have more than 4 hours of screen time per day than other groups.
“As technology and screens continue to evolve, their impact on children’s lives is changing, making it increasingly important to expand our understanding of screen time use patterns overall and among selected subgroups,” the authors wrote.