Tracking your children’s social media habits is one of the biggest obstacles many parents face.
Not knowing what your kids are exposed to and managing their digital addiction is increasingly difficult, especially in the wake of the pandemic, where online communication is the only way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. love.
So how much time are our children spending on social media? By analyzing time spent on the most popular social networking apps, including Instagram, TikTok and Facebook from 2020-2021, Qustodio reveals the surprising social media habits of 10-18 year olds in the UK.
The study revealed:
- More people under 18 are blocking social media apps than ever before
- On average, how much time do people under 18 spend on social media in 2021 compared to 2020?
- The most popular social networking apps for kids and how they have increased over the past year
TikTok is the most used social networking platform for under-18s
After shutting down in 2020, TikTok is one of the most popular apps for under-18s with multiple challenges TikTok dominating the social network for weeks at a time. Despite the easing of the lockdown, TikTok remains the most popular social media for under-18s, with a 5.64% increase in users under 18 in 2021.
TikTok’s popularity also increased in each age group, with each age group seeing a user increase of at least 2%.
Snapchat usage also surged between 2020 and 2021, especially during the first few months when schools were closed, meaning kids going to school couldn’t see their friends. Snapchat is a popular social media for kids to stay in touch, as it’s more than just a photo-sharing app, but users can make group chats and calls.
Perhaps surprisingly, Instagram had the lowest increase by age group for all social networking apps, with a drop of 0.56% among users aged 10-12. However, the increase for 13-15 year olds has been minimal, increasing by only 0.47% in 2021 compared to 2020.
While it’s only the fourth most popular app for under-18s, each age group has seen a significant increase in users in the past year alone. In particular, the 10–12 year old group had the largest increase of 11.05% last year.
Average daily usage (September 2020 and September 2021)
16–18 year olds have seen the biggest increase in social media use over the past year, averaging 12 minutes more per day than the previous year. At younger ages, 10–12 year olds have a slight decrease in social media time and average time is still quite low, less than half an hour per day, perhaps reflecting greater parental involvement in social media use. prevent too much time using the device.
Many people under 18 are blocking social networking apps:
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the study is that more and more people under the age of 18 are blocking social networking sites.
Many people aged 10-18 have blocked and deleted their social networking apps. As the world is returning to normal and face-to-face communication is finally back, many teens are relying less and less on social networking apps to stay in touch.
The most blocked app is TikTok, with 24.33% of accounts under the age of 18 blocking the video-sharing platform in 2021, a figure that’s up nearly 6% in 2020. However, TikTok is still a social networking app. most popular association in the UK, with 23.48% of under-18s being active users.
