On a typical school day, young people spend an average of 4.5 hours online on screens and more than 6 hours at weekends, according to newly published EU data.
In addition, it showed that nearly 14% of teenagers in the European Union, or one in seven, say they spend at least 8 hours or more on screens — a figure that rises to more than ten hours a day on Saturday and Sunday.
When asked about the impact that screen time has on their lives, 40% of adolescents surveyed said it was positive, while only 29% spoke of negative effects. Around half of 13 to 18-year-olds feel optimistic about the effects of social media, with 48% saying social media has a positive impact on their mental health.
But, at the same time, nearly every one in three adolescents reported feeling sad, stressed or socially excluded because of social media. Around 40% said they had difficulty concentrating or had trouble falling asleep.
The survey backed up widespread concerns about young people being exposed to harmful content via these channels. More than a third of European teens reported seeing false or misleading information on social media, while a quarter reported encountering hate speech and almost one in five had seen unwanted violent content.
