One million kids spend more time on screens than parents’ working week
10 March 2025, 13:11 | Updated: 10 March 2025, 13:12
Online Safety Day is today, Monday 10th March from 7am to midnight on LBC, available across the UK on Global Player on your smart speaker, iOS or Android device; on DAB digital radio and TV, at LBC.co.uk and in London on 97.3 FM.
More than one million children in the UK are spending the equivalent of a full working week parked in front of a screen.
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New research shared exclusively with LBC has found that one in fourteen children are now spending over 40 hours per week on their smartphones and computers - meaning children are effectively spending a 9-5 working week on their screens.
The startling findings, shared exclusively with LBC, magnifies the importance of keeping children safe online.
On Monday, meanwhile, LBC will be embarking on a day of coverage dedicated to how we prevent children experiencing trouble online - shining a light on everything from the threat of unwanted sexual advances from adults to the impact of algorithms on kids’ mental health and exposure to harmful content.
The survey of over 2,000 adults was carried out by Triple P UK, which works with parents to provide them with the skills and support they need to be good mothers and fathers.
Alarmingly, it also found that a quarter of a million children are now spending eight hours a day on social media, gaming devices and video streaming platforms.
The organisation’s chief executive, Matthew Buttery, believes that the figures show the importance of balancing the benefits screens can offer young people whilst minimising harms.
Read more: LBC’s Online Safety Day Monday 10th March, 7am to midnight
“We're not going to go back to a society where these screens are not part of kids’ lives and nor is anyone advocating that,” Mr Buttery said.
“What we need to do, however, is strike that right balance between the use of things like social media and ensuring that we have good mental health outcomes, be it sleep outcomes and not exposing kids to harmful content.”
LBC’s Online Safety Day comes just a week before the social media regulator, Ofcom, gains new powers to clamp down on tech companies that fail to properly protect children on their platforms.
As part of the new measures, Ofcom will assume the ability to jail social media bosses who are negligent in their protection of children on their platforms, as well as fining companies up to 10% of their global revenue.
Perhaps counterintuitively, the research also suggests that younger parents are more worried about their children’s online activity than older parents.
Mr Buttery suggested that these parents are likely to be more acutely aware of the dangers of social media, having grown up in the generation first exposed to the new technologies.
The government has faced pressure from campaigners to introduce further measures to improve online safety.
Read more: The ultimate guide to keeping your children safe online by LBC's tech guru Will Guyatt
Campaigner Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her own life after viewing content encouraging suicide and self-harm on social media, recently wrote to the prime minister criticising the government for ‘going backwards’ on the issue.
On Friday, former teacher and Labour MP Josh MacAlister, brought forward a bill which aims to force the government to decide within a year whether it will raise the digital age of consent from 13 to 16.
His proposals, however, received criticism from opposition MPs, including former education secretary Kit Malthouse, for ditching measures in the bill’s previous draft, including giving head teachers legal backing to make schools mobile free
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has previously indicated that the government could go further on the issue of online safety, describing current legislation as “unsatisfactory”.
Mr Kyle joins LBC’s Shelagh Fogarty in a special edition of Call The Cabinet on Monday from 1300.
