“How much time do you think kids spend with technology every day?” I asked my youngest.
“A lot. I don’t know the number, but I bet it’s a lot,” he responded.
His answer reinforced that you don’t need a research study to know that media and technology take up an enormous share of our waking hours (and even some of our sleeping hours). “A lot” is a pretty good summary of the sheer amount of time we spend with technology.
But I am grateful that Common Sense Media takes frequent snapshots of young people’s tech and media use. It helps us get more specific and identify new trends and shifts in how kids are spending their time online. Breaking “screen time” into more specific measures paints a more accurate picture of kids’ digital lives. It also points to ways we might better support them.
So what does the 2026 Common Sense Census tell us? The team surveyed 1,211 kids in the United States ages 9-17 . A typical teenager in this country clocks in at just over eight hours a day with screen-based entertainment media. The typical pre-teen spends about five. That is indeed… a lot. But to better understand how tweens and teens are using technology check out the full report. Here are five of my key takeaways:
1. Aging Down
In the last ten years, media activities that once belonged in the realm of middle and high school have aged right down to elementary school. This report confirms that this shift has held. While only 24% of nine-year-olds have their own smartphones, this nearly doubles by age ten. In terms of what they are doing on devices and computers, many kids under the age of thirteen are using platforms intended for older users. More specifically, half of 9-12 year olds use social media for nearly an hour and a half on a given day. Nearly half of tweens have ever used AI chatbots or companions, and 18% of them used AI chatbots on a given day. By age fifteen, the vast majority of kids report having used AI.
The debate about raising age limits for these platforms rages on across the globe. Wherever that debate lands, it’s clear that even younger users get on the platforms easily and often and that platform efforts to remove underage users aren’t working at scale.
2. Short-form video rules the day
My oldest kid loves to watch sitcoms and movies. At this point, these formats can feel like old-timey entertainment. They are certainly a world away from short-form video content that is now ranked the most popular media activity among both age groups. Consuming short-form video (like TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts) is a daily activity for nearly 60% of tweens and over 80% of teens. For a typical teen, scrolling through this content occupies almost two hours a day.
For parents of late elementary and middle school kids, the fact that YouTube remains the number one platform among tweens won’t come as a surprise. Once kids hit the teenage years, it looks like YouTube gets some competition as TikTok (followed by Snapchat in third place) vies for the top spot in preferences.
3. Socializing through gaming
Raising two boys has taught me that the image of kids gaming alone and isolated for hours on end doesn’t accurately reflect kids’ gaming lives. This report backs this up, showing that gaming is largely a social activity for most tweens and teens. The vast majority of young gamers (85%) report that they usually play with others. Both tweens and teens say that they often game with people they know in real life, though teens are more likely to also play online with people they’ve met through games.
4. The digital divide isn’t over
Kids across households have fairly even phone ownership but computer access is another story. Kids in higher-income families (92%) are more likely than their lower-income peers (83%) to have access to a computer at home. The gap widens further (56% vs. 46%) when it comes to having their own computer. As schools and families make intentional choices about the role of tech in learning, it’s worth remembering that computer access continues to be uneven across households.
5. The enjoyment gap
There is a gap between how much young people use certain platforms and how much they enjoy them. The gap is widest for AI use, where 77% of teens say they use AI chatbots in their free time but only about one in ten of them say they enjoy it “a lot.” To be fair, if a researcher asked me if I find search engines super enjoyable, I would likely say no. So for teens using AI as a search substitute or a word processor, this gap makes sense. The authors note as much in the report.
That said, the same pattern shows up with social media. The majority of teens use social media but just under half enjoy it “a lot.” The authors of the report note that this gap could be “perpetuated by platform engineering that is designed to hold attention.” Previous research reinforces that teens have both positive and negative experiences online so it’s worth asking teens more about what drives this gap. The notable exception to the enjoyment gap? Short-form video. About two-thirds of tweens and teens report enjoying that format “a lot.”
What now? What next?
Moving from the broad sense that kids and teens are using media “a lot” toward more specific trends helps us show up more meaningfully for our kids. Here are three places to start:
When it comes to phones, slow down and build skills
This report didn’t capture what kind of smartphone ten- and eleven-year-olds are getting, but many kids are getting their first phones right at the transition to middle school. Science doesn’t point to a universal age when all kids are ready for phones. There are plenty of fourteen-year-olds who do fine and plenty of eighteen-year-olds who struggle. But middle school in particular is an important time to practice face-to-face connection with peers and build healthy study and sleep habits. This data is a good reminder to go back to what we have been recommending for a while now: slow down on phones, set purposeful limits, and build skills over time. Use our First Device Guide to make a plan for your family.
Don’t forget about YouTube
While news cycles tend to focus on the latest social media apps and age gating platforms like Instagram or Snapchat, the platform most kids don’t want to live without is YouTube. Whether this screen time helps or hurts depends on the content and what it is crowding out. YouTube is the ultimate mixed bag when it comes to high quality content (to say the least), so kids rely on us to help them manage the algorithm. If this task feels daunting, you are not alone. Navigating infinite content streams and complicated parental controls can feel overwhelming. Check out my piece on navigating YouTube for ideas.
Talk about AI early and often
To me, it looks like AI use is following a pattern similar to the one we saw with social media. Kids start using these tools well before high school and activity increases with age. The challenge is that these platforms were not built for younger users and independent testing is decidedly not comforting. Common Sense Media has found that many popular AI platforms pose an “unacceptable risk” even to teen users. Given these safety concerns, younger kids will likely benefit from strong limits and from having adults alongside them if and when they first use AI tools.
Remember though, we don’t have to choose between purposeful boundaries and non-judgmental conversations about AI. For example, we can hold off entirely on AI companion use and ask kids questions like one that the Center for Digital Thriving recommends: “What kinds of questions might be easier to ask AI than to ask an adult?”
Advocate for age-appropriate design
How do we close the gap between use and meaningful enjoyment? Between use and safety? Just ask young people. Teenagers can name the kinds of design choices that would support healthier and more enjoyable use. Teen advisors with the American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health recently released a report called “Building Better Platforms: A Youth-Led Guide to Age-Appropriate Digital Design.” Closing the gap isn’t a mystery. But you do have to center adolescent voice and wellbeing in product design instead of time, attention, and profit margins.
“A lot”
This new report raises real questions about what technology might be crowding out in young people’s lives. Taken alongside other research about the kinds of offline experiences young people are asking for, it reads to me as another call to action to ensure that kids have access to rich developmental experiences and third spaces. If we are going to meaningfully reduce tech time, we need to meaningfully increase positive alternatives.
When we look closer at how young people are using technology, other important invitations emerge: to cultivate healthy connections through gaming, to actively guide kids through a world where short-form video and AI are always at their fingertips, and step into the gaps to advocate for a better internet for kids (and for us). Kids may not turn to us and ask us for these things directly – but we know that they benefit when we show up meaningfully in their digital lives. How much? A lot.