Army of teenage screen addicts spend bulk of their weekend online, figures reveal

MORE than 150,000 teenagers spend in excess of eight hours a day online at weekends, official figures reveal.

About six per cent of children aged 12 to 15 devote most of their waking time at the weekend to online activity, according to a study of “extreme” users produced by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator.

A further tenth of teenagers (11 per cent, or about 300,000 individuals) spend five to eight hours a day online at the weekend.

During the school week, one per cent of children (28,000) are spending more than eight hours a day online, four per cent more than six hours, and 11 per cent from four to eight hours.

The figures show growing heavy use of digital technology from as young as three or four. One in 20 children aged three or four spends more than three hours a day online at weekends.

The release of the data, covering all online activity from social media to homework, comes after evidence from the Office for National Statistics of a “clear association” between time spent online and mental health issues.

Last week, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health told MPS on the science and technology committee that there was an urgent need for indepth research to establish if increased time online was responsible for the rise in mental ill health among the young.

The Daily Telegraph is campaigning for a statutory duty of care on social media and gaming firms to protect children from harm online. In its written evidence to the committee, the Royal College also backed new laws.

Research at University College London has found teenage girls who spent more than an hour a day on social media from the age of 10 were more prone to emotional and social problems.

Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, has warned the health service is “picking up the pieces” of an epidemic of mental illness among children, fuelled by social media.

Meanwhile, the Government and the Information Commissioner are drawing up proposals for statutory codes that could impose curbs on the “compulsive” techniques used by social media and gaming firms to keep children online.