Digital media use on the rise among youth, study says

The U.S.-based Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this month released the results of a survey of media consumption habits among young people showing that nearly unfettered access to websites, television and video games has caused the average time spent per day consuming digital media among American children and teenagers to spike to roughly seven and a half hours.

Particularly heavy media users - which the survey defines as the 21 percent of children and teens who consume 16 or more hours of digital content per day - were more likely to report academic problems than light users, who made up 17 percent of the sample and consumed three hours or less per day.

Partially to blame for this overconsumption, the study says, are laissez-faire parents. Just three in 10 children and teens surveyed reported any kind of parental limits on how much time they spend watching TV or playing computer games.

By contrast, the Kaiser study says, those same children and teenagers spend an average of 25 minutes a day reading books, nine reading magazines, and just three for newspapers.