Kids have taken full advantage of the new dispensation, and their increase in screen time has continued along with the pandemic. In a May survey by Roblox among 13-to-18s who followed the gaming platform on Twitter, 44% said they “get more screen time because my parents don’t care as much.” NortonLifeLock’s polling found 5-to-17s averaging an extra 1.5 hours of screen time a day on school days, not counting usage for school. A May survey for the 4-H Council by Harris Poll found 13-to-19s confessing (or boasting) that they spent three-quarters of their waking hours using screens.
Indeed, one effect of the pandemic has been to make common what would previously have stood out as extreme amounts of screen time. Morning Consult’s polling gives a telling example. Pre-pandemic, 60% of parents said their kids spent 3 hours or less per day with screens. In the August polling, by contrast, 70% said their kids were spending at least 4 hours a day at it. May–June polling of parents by Ipsos for the Global Myopia Awareness Coalition (GMAC) traced a roughly similar pattern. The proportion of 5-to-10s and 11-to-13s using electronic devices for more than 4 hours a day had more than doubled. Among 14-to-17s, the figure had nearly doubled and encompassed a large majority.