An ongoing national survey of children shows kids are spending more time glued to their devices as they get older, with those aged 12 to 13 staring at screens for at least three hours a day.

Run by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) has tracked 4000 children since 2004.

Children aged between four and five years are spending around 2.2 hours each weekday watching screens, but that number grows to 3.3 hours by the time they are 12 and 13.

The numbers increase on the weekend, up to 2.5 hours for three to four-year-olds, and 4.3 hours for the 12 to 13 year old cohort.

While it remains shy of the daily 4.5 hours American tweens spend in front of the TV and on their devices, it is still above Australia’s recommended limit of two hours a day.

Associate professor Ben Edwards, LSAC’s manager, said one of the concerning aspects of the survey was that most of the time in front of the screen was spent passively watching TV or streaming video.

“What we’re seeing is that it’s really hard for parents to manage that,” he said.

“I’ve got kids myself and I know how hard it is to get them off screens, part of it is setting up an environment that enables better control of the screen time.”

Rise of screens in public spaces labelled primary reason

The increasing saturation of screens in public spaces, schools and homes was labelled the primary reason of why the number of hours was rising.

It has also got Australian experts looking to the American Society of Paediatrics, which is currently reviewing its two hour screen limit.

Adding in more extra-curricular activities, setting limits about when and where screens can be used, and banning them from the bedroom top the list of ways to keep exposure down.

The survey revealed houses with more TVs logging longer watching hours than those with fewer.

Households where mothers received a university education were also more likely to have lower weekday screen time hours, although the weekend amounts were the same.

Active children and those who identified as ‘high energy’ also logged fewer hours glued to the screen, pointing to one of Dr Edwards’ primary concerns about allowing too much screen time.

“We know there’s a childhood obesity epidemic, and in part that’s because of high rates of sedentary activity,” he said.

“So the implications of that will be realised in the future, as well the impact on their broader social wellbeing.”

— ABC