There was a time when parents ‘bribed’ their children to behave, do their homework or clean their room by threatening to withhold television-watching privileges. That’s an unlikely scenario today – it’s much more likely the threat is still about a screen, but it will be a computer, tablet or mobile device.
Because Australian children are spending much less time in front of a television, and much more time online according to the latest findings of Roy Morgan Research.
Eight years ago, tweens and teens of the time were watching an average of 2 hours and 29 minutes of television each weekday and 5 hours and 49 minutes on weekends. This year, the same age group – who are now aged between 8 and 20 years have decreased their television time to 1 hour and 43 minutes on weekdays and 4 hours and 17 minutes on weekends. Their online habits have shot up by almost 90 minutes a day to 3 hours and 24 minutes on weekdays and by more than three hours a day on weekends to 7 hours and 38 minutes.
The slightly older age group of Gen Y follow a similar trajectory, spending an average time of 3 hours 11 minutes online during the week and just under 6 hours on weekends. Their television viewing has dropped off significantly.
But, according to George Pesutto of Roy Morgan Research, that’s not to say television is still not an important media channel.
On average, every person aged 14+ watches 19 hours 18 minutes of television each week which is 2 hours 8 minutes more than they spend online. He said that this is because older Australians are watching more television than eight years ago and they’re also spending more time online
“While the time Australians spend watching TV has declined since 2005, we still spend more time watching it than we do consuming other media.”
He said that the recent relaunch of SBS Television of SBS2 as a dedicated youth channel is an interesting development.
“It will be interesting to see if they succeed in wooing younger Australians back to the box.”
Mr Pesutto said all media face the challenging of ensuring their content is available and viewed online.
“This is going to become more crucial into the future,” he said. “Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets allow us to access all media ‘on the go’ whether it’s reading the newspaper, streaming radio or watching TV.
The research showed that fewer people are reading newspapers and magazines, or listening to radio – but the number reading or listening online is growing. Mr Pesutto says this will increase further.
“People expect and want their media to be available at their convenience, no matter where they happen to be at the time.”
In the meantime, what do parents do?
Back in March, we wrote about a study that was reported in the Pediatrics Journal which suggested that, instead of focussing on how much youngsters watch, parents should focus on what they’re watching.
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