Couch Potato Kids vs Great Outdoors Kids

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Children spend three times more time on screen than playing outdoors

Britain’s children spend three times as long in front of a screen (11.8 hours) as they do playing outdoors (3.8 hours) each week – and the leisure pursuits they choose are heavily influenced by where they live - according to new data from KalliKids, a parent-led accreditation company for children’s activities and services across the UK.

These latest research findings come at a time when there is growing concern surrounding the rise of childhood obesity in the UK, with health leaders recently calling for an emergency task force to be set up to tackle the problem head on. The new KalliKids data suggests that the allure of technology is creating a generation more interested in playing on games consoles than playing in parks – creating an unhealthy balance between physical activities and sitting in front of a screen.

The KalliKids poll of 1,281 parents, asked them how their children spent their free time across a range of activities, including playing outdoors, doing homework and spending time with friends.

Top Five

The five activities that the average child spent the most time on a week comprised: watching TV (4.8 hours), spending time with friends (3.9 hours), playing on games consoles (3.8 hours), playing outdoors (3.8 hours) and time on a computer (3.2 hours). Reading books and doing homework failed to make the top five.

Bottom Five

The five activities the average children spent the least amount of time on a week included: volunteering (0.8 hours), cooking/ baking (1.2 hours), going to the shops (1.5 hours), extracurricular school work (1.6 hours) and playing sport with a club/ association (1.6 hours).

Regional Highlights

The research also suggested that where people live in the country might determine how their child ends up spending their free time (see notes to editors for full regional table).

Squared-eyed regions

Children living in the North East, North West, South West and Scotland spent the most time sitting in front of screens. This challenges notions that people who live in the extremes of the UK are more likely to make the most of the great outdoors.

Capital of growth and learning

Children living in London and the East spent the most time doing what some would consider to be valuable developmental activities such as reading, arts and crafts and playing sport. These were also the regions where children spent the least amount of time in front of a screen.

Homework league table

Scotland (3.8 hours), East Midlands and London (3.2 hours) were the regions where children spent the most time doing homework. In contrast, children in the North East and the South East spent the least amount of time studying at home (2.3 hours).

Most sociable regions

Research revealed that children in Yorkshire and The Humber and Scotland enjoyed the most social time in the company of friends (4.5 hours and 5.9 hours). In contrast, children in London and the West Midlands had the least time with friends (2.9 hours). This could reflect the increased difficulty of seeing friends, when living in a large city.

Karen Bach, Founder of KalliKids commented

“Many children today seem to be sitting on an inactivity time bomb. Despite the obvious allure of modern technology, computer games and smart phones to today’s youth, it is important to ensure we still have a nation of active children that enjoy team sports, climbing trees, being in a play and expressing themselves through music and art. There are thousands of pursuits that young children can enjoy and at KalliKids we work hard to ensure parents can make easy and informed decisions about the activities that are right for their kids – a place to find and recommend their favourite clubs, classes, places to go, tutors and services.”

Additional findings and themes

Square-eyed teenagers

The average child spends over a third of their time in front of a screen (11.8 hours out of 34 hours), but those aged 16-17 topped the list by spending 18.2 hours at a screen a week – suggesting that the gadget addiction grows as children get older.

No more ‘Big Cook, Little Cook’

Whilst adults have just enjoyed another Great British bake-off, 34% of children don’t cook or bake. This could be a symptom of a generation mirroring the lives of their busy parents, who are often too busy to cook.

Olympic light not so bright for children

Despite hopes that the London 2012 Olympics would create an active sports legacy for the UK, 41% of parents said their children do not regularly participate in sport.

The research was conducted for KalliKids by Vision Critical in October 2014