A new study from Precise TV and Giraffe Insights has found that 72% of two- to 12-year-olds in the UK watch YouTube, spending an average of 83 minutes a day there. The platform is winning the entertainment race by some margin against other options such as subscription-based streamers (64%), phone/tablet games (54%) and console games (43%). And broken out as a separate category, YouTube Shorts also came in at 41%.

Precise and Giraffe surveyed 1,000 British kids and their parents in spring 2025 to generate the data that underpins Precise Advertisers Report: Kids, which also takes a more granular look at how Gen Alpha kids watch YouTube and what they’re looking for on the platform. 

Kids say they watch YouTube on phones (57%) and tablets (56%) the most, with TV screens (43%), laptops/computers (24%) and game consoles (12%) lagging behind. But interestingly, 50% of boys ages two to five are watching YouTube on a TV screen.

In terms of what they go there to watch, it’s cartoons (47%), videos about toys & games (40%), education (38%), gaming (33%), animals & nature (30%) and comedy (29%). And British kids aren’t particularly patriotic in their content choices, with only 26% of survey respondents preferring homegrown. Half said they like British and American content equally, and 9.4% can’t tell the difference.

Drilling down further, there’s some overlap between which channels boys and girls like the most. Both gender groups put PAW Patrol, Pokémon, SpongeBob SquarePants, CoComelon, Cartoon Network, Bluey, Peppa Pig, Mr. Bean and Disney Jr. one their fave lists. But the boys also included CBBC and LEGO, while girls prefer Unicorn Academy and National Geographic Kids. Looking at gaming channels specifically, Gaming with Jen, BigSchool, Unspeakable, Lanky Box, CKN Gaming, Stumble Guys and BriannaPlayz are all popular with both genders.

Most British kids prefer to watch YouTube alone (57%), especially when they’re bingeing YouTube Shorts (62%). But when families engage in co-viewing, YouTube is where they go most often. And almost half of parents surveyed (49%) say they watch YouTube with their kids. 

In terms of ad recall, YouTube also came out on top, with 68% of the survey respondents saying that’s where they had most recently seen ads. This is significantly ahead of broadcast TV (52%), TikTok (52%), Instagram (48%) and subscription-based streamers with ad tiers (36%). 

Pester power is particularly high during co-viewing across all platforms, with 76% of parents reporting they’ve been asked to buy something their child has seen while watching content together as a family. And 35% of parents say the last thing they bought their kids was featured in a YouTube ad. 

Image courtesy of Audrey K via Unsplash