As of March 2020, a survey on parenting in the United States revealed that a major reason for 76 percent of parents to have not shared anything about their children on social media was because they did not want other people to have access to the information. A major reason for 71 percent of responding non-sharers was due to them not wanting social media sites collecting data about their children.

This statistic presents data on the most popular social media news sources among children and teenagers in the United States as of January 2017, sorted by age. During a survey, 77 percent of teenage respondents stated that they got news from Facebook.

In 2023, children in the United Kingdom spent an average of 127 minutes per day on TikTok. This was followed by Instagram, as children in the UK reported using the app for an average of 40 minutes daily. Children in the UK aged between four and 18 years also used Facebook for 15 minutes a day on average in the measured period.

Mobile ownership and usage among UK children In 2021, around 60 percent of kids aged between eight and 11 years in the UK owned a smartphone, while children aged between five and seven having access to their own device were approximately 30 percent. Mobile phones were also the second most popular devices used to access the web by children aged between eight and 11 years, as tablet computers were still the most popular option for users aged between three and 11 years. Children were not immune to the popularity acquired by short video format content in 2020 and 2021, spending an average of 97 minutes per day engaging with TikTok, as well as over 50 minutes on the YouTube app in 2021.

Children data protection In 2021, 37 percent of U.S. parents and 44 percent of UK parents reported being slightly concerned with their children’s device usage habits. While the share of parents reporting to be very or extremely concerned was considerably smaller, children are considered among the most vulnerable digital audiences and need additional attention when it comes to data and privacy protection. According to a study conducted during the first quarter of 2022, 76 percent of children’s apps hosted in the Google Play Store and 67 percent of apps hosted in the Apple App Store transmitted users’ locations to advertisers.

Additionally, 42 percent of kids’ apps were found to collect persistent identifiers, such as users’ IP addresses, which could potentially lead to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) violations in the United States. In the United Kingdom, companies have to take into account several obligations when considering online environments for children, including an age-appropriate design and avoiding sharing children’s data.

In 2020, around 90 percent of parents surveyed in Mexico and in Peru stated that they knew what information on the social network profiles of their children was public. Concurrently, in Brazil, one out of five responding parents said they were not aware of the public information featured on their children's social media profiles. Furthermore, according to another survey, approximately one third of children in Mexico accessed online communications media content.

Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.

90% of people aged 18-29 use social media in some form. 15% of people aged 23-38 admit that they are addicted to social media.

This statistic presents data on the preferred social media news sources among children and teenagers in the United States as of January 2017, sorted by age. During a survey, 47 percent of teenage respondents stated that Facebook was the preferred source of news.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, teenagers spent an average of 4.8 hours every day on social media platforms. Girls spent 5.3 hours on social networks daily, compared to 4.4 hours for boys. YouTube and TikTok were the most popular online networks among those aged 13 to 19, with 1.9 and 1.5 hours of average daily engagement, respectively. The most used platform for girls was TikTok, while the most used platform for boys was YouTube. Are teens constantly connected to social media? YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most attractive and time-consuming platforms for young internet users. A survey conducted in the U.S. in 2023 found that 62 percent of teenagers were almost constantly connected to Instagram, and 17 percent were almost constantly connected to TikTok. Overall, 71 percent of teens used YouTube daily, and 47 percent used Snapchat daily. Furthermore, YouTube had a 93 percent reach among American teens in 2023, down from 95 percent in 2022. Teens and their internet devices For younger generations especially, social media is mostly accessed via mobile devices, and almost all teenagers in the United States have smartphone access. A 2023 survey conducted in the U.S. found that 92 percent of teens aged 13 to 14 years had access to a smartphone at home, as well as 97 percent of those aged 15 to 17. Additionally, U.S. girls were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to have access to a smartphone.

In 2018, kids advertising spending amounted to 4.2 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. Expenditure is forecast to reach 4.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2021, out of which an estimated 1.7 billion is projected to stem from digital advertising formats.

Advertising to children
With the widespread adoption of television, advertising to children has become commonplace around the world. Children represent a huge market to advertisers, and while many youngsters have no money to spend themselves, their preferences largely influence their parents’ shopping decisions. In a 2019 survey, 72 percent of parents to kids aged three to 13 from Mexico stated that advertising was the main reason their child picked a specific brand or product, indicating the immense impact of commercial appeals to children.

Kids advertising is moving online – but at what cost?
Ad spend targeted towards children continues to grow, and while traditional advertising still accounts for the lion’s share of expenditure, there has been a noticeable trend towards digital in recent years. This relocation reflects the changing consumer behavior of kids who are gradually shifting their screen time from TVs to digital devices. However, without parental supervision, children are at risk of being exposed to inappropriate digital media and advertising content such as alcohol promotion. This particular problem has been visible in the television industry for years, and in 2018, over 300 million non-compliant alcohol advertising impressions were registered on U.S. cable TV programs alone. As young audiences are more impressionable and cannot always identify ads as such, the rise of advertising platforms calls for stricter regulations in terms of the language and images used. Just as in traditional media formats, digital advertising to children should be legal, decent, and truthful, while also ensuring data protection and privacy relating to children’s personal information.