Every new report for the past 30 years has shown a rise in screen time among children—to an almost incomprehensible degree. But now we’re seeing a downward trend. Screen time for kids under age 15 has actually decreased between 2023 and 2024.

The previous growth was not especially surprising. Governments, researchers and NGOs have tracked screen usage since at least the mid-1990s. A chart created by Meta.ai* suggests that in 1995, preschoolers ages two to five spent under an hour on screens each day; six- to 12-year-olds around 2.5 hours; and young teens 3.5 hours. By 2010, daily screen time ranged from two hours for toddlers, to six hours for teens. And by 2024, it had risen to between 3.5 and 7.5 hours.

In the late 1990s, television cornered virtually all kid screen time, except for some small amounts they were spending on desktop computers or gaming consoles. In 2010, TV still dominated the scene, but mobile devices had arrived (the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010) and were starting to be used significantly by tweens and teens.

Now, young people are immersed in media from very early ages, thanks to “pass-back” smartphones and tablets with educational apps, linear/streaming/YouTube viewing, gaming, messaging, social media and more. With so many options, who wouldn’t expect screen use to keep increasing? We certainly did—until our latest Dubit Trends April 2024 wave indicated otherwise.

Data in this article was drawn from surveys we conducted with at least 1,000 children in 11 different countries (and more in the US and the UK). Kids in these two nations—plus Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain—are questioned on a yearly basis. And we cover Brazil, India, Malaysia and Mexico every other year. Here’s what we found when we checked in with them this past spring.

DEVICE OWNERSHIP

Dubt Trends routinely asks kids and teens which devices they share with family members and which ones they own themselves. A widespread drop in smartphone and tablet ownership was surprising, given the longitudinal trends we’ve always observed.

For kids ages two to 15, smartphone ownership decreased in all markets, and most notably in Malaysia and Mexico. Tablet ownership fell everywhere except Italy. This slowdown was especially pronounced with tweens (ages 10 to 13), the cohort where we usually see a switchover to the independence of getting their own phone for the first time.

Meanwhile, TV ownership dropped sharply in Mexico and Australia, but rose slightly in Italy, Brazil and the US (a lift that’s a bit of a mystery to us, in all honesty). Having a TV in their rooms used to be a rite of passage for kids, giving them the freedom to watch what and when they wanted. But today, mobile technologies with video-viewing apps and platforms make owning a TV less important.

PC/laptop ownership is holding steadier, decreasing in some markets (UK: 37% in 2023 to 34% in 2024) and increasing slightly in others (US: 49% in 2023 to 52% in 2024). For tweens and teens, in particular, the laptop tends to be a “necessity” device—used mostly for schoolwork and some gaming—and therefore is less susceptible to sudden swings.

SCREEN TIME

Overall, screen time among two- to 15-year- olds was down in all countries but one, and the decreases were consistent across every age group. The one counter-trending country (the UK) showed only a slight increase in screen time among six- to eight-year-olds. Otherwise, the drop was more or less the same across all measured devices, suggesting a broader shift in behavior, not a narrowing platform or content trend.

Notably, there were two specific types of usage that posted exceptional declines:

App gaming

The overall proportion of kids gaming on apps has decreased substantially. In the UK, gaming among two- to 15-year-olds dropped from 84% in 2023 to 79% in 2024. Driving this change were two- to five- year-olds—a demo for which “gaming” usually means educational apps provided at parents’ convenience—with usage down from 68% in 2023 to 59% in 2024.

Linear television

Traditional TV viewing decreased in the most recent wave, except in Australia. And the US decline was notably large (56% in 2023 to 48% in 2024).

WHY THE DROP?

We’ve got a few theories, some of which point to an ongoing decline, while others suggest these numbers will stabilize or trend upward again.

Device ownership

During the pandemic, we said that “down on the corner went up on the server,” disrupting young people’s schooling and social life. Work-from-home families competed for devices and bandwidth. Uninterrupted access became critical, so families bought the equipment their children needed.

With kids free to enjoy school and play in person again in the wake of the pandemic, families feel less need to replace or buy tech. For example, Q1 2024 showed a 10% year-over-year drop in iPhone sales, according to Apple.

Tablets are mostly a preschool device, but children likely hung onto them for longer during the pandemic. The current ownership decline occurs around age 10, suggesting that they’re ready to set them aside sooner these days.

The small rise in TV ownership in the US may refl ect changing content habits. In most countries, YouTube represents the third largest share of usage on bigger screens, behind SVOD and linear. In July 2024, Nielsen declared YouTube the first streaming service to corner 10% of all US viewing on TVs.

We need to study whether the “techlash” is having an impact on youth phone ownership. Organizations like Wait Until 8th in the US, and Kids For Now in the UK are urging families to hold o on giving children smartphones. And in Europe and the US, an increasing number of schools are banning the devices.

Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation (despite critical dissections) and the US Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health may be leading some parents to rethink their children’s habits (if not their own).

Screen time

In 2020, Dubit projected that young people would set aside devices after the pandemic in order to catch up on all the in-person play and socializing they had sorely missed.

We reassured media companies that “it’s not you, it’s them,” and that kids would eventually return to their previous habits. Now, maybe they’re enjoying a new balance in how they spend their time.

Or maybe not. Screens have become so enmeshed in young people’s lives that perhaps self-estimations of screen time are no longer accurate. A fish moves without consciousness of water, and children navigate their saturated world of screens, games and social media in ways that might make it difficult to recognize the extent of their engagement.

So what’s the bottom line here? Well, we don’t know yet. It’s important to note that, for now, this is only a snapshot. With just one wave of data to work with, it’s far from enough to establish a true trend— but it’s important enough to merit some attention. And we’ll be watching this space closely to see what time has to tell.

*Surveys of “screen time” have changed substantially and repeatedly with technology and platform innovation over the past 30 years, so Dubit used Meta’s AI to synthesize an estimate of growth since 1995, across all available mediums.

DAVID KLEEMAN is a strategist, analyst, author and speaker who has worked in children’s media for more than 35 years. He is SVP of global trends at metaverse studio and research consultancy Dubit.

This story was originally published in Kidscreen‘s Q4 2024 magazine issue.