Kid's & family media and TV statistics are the focus of this page. For general media usage statistics, click here. The National Institute on Media and the Family is a great source of reliable, up-to-date data on children and family media usage. Their Facts section has data on Video Games, Television, Internet & Computers, Music, Media Use, Health & Advertising and more.

CommonSenseMedia.org is another excellent resource. Their Tips section has a Health Survival Guide with statistics (unfortunately not referenced to the original source or date, but the copyright is 2007) as well as an Internet "survival guide" for parents. The Resources section has great links to research data in the categories of Obesity, Violence, Commercialism, Sex & Dating, Academic Performance, Body Image/Gender & Racial Stereotypes, general media usage and more.

The Kaiser Family Foundation produces regular reports on the Study of Entertainment Media & Health, including, "Parents Say They’re Gaining Control Over Their Children’s Exposure to Sex and Violence in the Media" (June 2007; "Children's Exposure to Food Advertising on Television;" and "Teen Media Juggling Act: The Implications of Media Multitasking Among American Youth."

The Center for Screen-Time Awareness (formerly TV-Turnoff Network) has many printer-friendly fact sheets and links to various research articles with more statistics and useful data.

The Parents Television Council has many reports on what they consider to be the horrible influence of TV in our lives. The data are probably accurate, just keep in mind that their studies start out with the assumption that media are a bad influence on children and have virtually no redeeming qualities. Their outside studies/documents on the effects of violence, sex, and language in the media are likely to be less biased.

The Online Publishers Association has a wealth of current statistics on online/Internet usage. You'll need to use keywords in their search box to find material specific to children, teens and families.

See how the video game industry tracks and measures the consumer preferences of video game players (which include many adults as well as children) at the Consumer Insights page of the Ziff Davis Media Game Group. Tons of statistics on how video gamer players use and feel about Automobiles, Clothing, Credit Cards, Electronics, Fast Foord Leisure, Movies, Music, Personal Care, and TV. (How do they get these numbers? Usually from the little "lifestyle preference" boxes they ask buyers to check off when registering the product.)

General data from earlier studies

Feb. 2006: Brandweek released "GenWorld: The New Generation of Global Youth," [opens a 25-page PDF document] with statistics on teen attitudes toward brands, advertising and more.

Jan. 2006: The industry lobbying group Entertainment Software Association released a survey indicating that  35% of American parents say they play computer and video games.  Among these “gamer parents”, 80% report that they play video games with their children, and two-thirds (66%) feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.

Jan. 2006: Children saw an average 33 percent more advertisements for alcoholic beverages on TV in 2004 than they did in 2001, according to an analysis by The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University.

Sept. 2005: During the last year, America's hard-core game players have shifted four more hours of their weekly TV-watching time to online activities, according to a new survey by Ziff Davis Media Game Group. The study, "Digital Gaming in America," also reports that the number of hard-core game-playing households increased by 900,000 from 18.9 million to 19.8 million over the same year's time. There are 76.2 million game-playing households in the U.S. in 2005 -- up 11.4% from 67.5 million in 2004. The importance of hard-core gamers in this overall universe is underscored by the study's finding that they account for 56% of the industry's revenue. Hard-core video gamers watched 18 hours of TV per week in 2005, down from 22 hours per week last year. However, hard-core players watch more TV than general gamers, the study said. General gamers watched 16 hours of TV per week in 2005 -- a drop of two hours since 2004.

June 2005: 52% of parents say they are talking more with their kids about commercials they see on TV, up from about one in three in prior waves of the study. 70% of parents say "it makes shopping easier when their child knows what brand he or she likes." The following percentages of kids report helping their parents pick out the following: Clothes – 84%; Movies, DVDs and videos to rent – 77% (up from 67% in 2001); Sit-down restaurants – 63% (up from 51% in 2001); Stores to shop in – 58% (up from 47% in 2001); Family vacation spots – 50%. Source: 2005 Youth MONITOR study sponsored by Disney and conducted by Yankelovich, their 10th youth and family analysis since 1987.

April 2005: Each hour of television that four-year-olds watch per day increases their probability of turning into schoolyard bullies by 9 per cent, according to a University of Washington study that tracked almost 1300 children.

March 2005: A University of California study found that teenagers and pre-teens with televisions in their bedroom are more likely to use drugs, smoke cigarettes, binge drink, and have sex. The study was published in the Australian Doctor. The study surveyed more than 1,000 10 to 16 year olds and found that over 50 percent of them had a television in their bedroom. They also watch more television than teens and pre-teens without a television in the bedroom. The study links the risky behavior to the amount of and unsupervised exposure to the high-risk behavior found in the media. The study also addresses how television's replacement for parent- child interaction contributes to harmful behavior. According to the study, parents of teens and pre-teens with televisions in their bedrooms are less likely to know where, and with whom, their children spend their after-school hours.

March 2005: Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds. A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new media” like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with “old” media like TV, print and music.

Feb. 2005: Kids' Rooms Prove Multimedia Paradise. A new survey from Gallup points out that nearly two-thirds--64 percent--of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 have televisions in their bedrooms, and 28 percent say they have a computer with Internet access in their rooms.

October 2004: Tweens, Teens, and Magazines – Fact Sheet. Explores the history of teen magazines that generally focus on 12-19 year olds, as well as trends affecting the genre, including advertising, readership, content, the role the magazines play in the lives of their readers, the effect of the web, and magazines for teen boys.

April 2004: Boys spend twice as much time playing video games as girls, but the gap is expected to close as more games are designed for girls with their preferences in mind. Video games were a $6 billion industry in 2000, growing into an $11 billion dollar industry by 2003. The games are in 80 percent of American homes with children, and 60 percent of Americans play video games. Read the study from Michigan State University.

More than 2 million American children ages 6 -17 have their own personal websites today, a December 2003 survey shows. This figure represents fully 10 percent of the 23 million kids who have Internet access from home -- a threefold increase since 2000. From “Children, Families and the Internet,” a survey by Grunwald Associates.

October 2003: Recent years have seen an explosion in electronic media marketed directly at the very youngest children in our society, yet very little is known about how these changes have played out in young people's lives. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a national study of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years. Read the report "Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers."

October 2003: A Kaiser Family Foundation study finds children age zero to six spend as much time with TV, computers and video games as playing outside. One in four children under two have a TV in their bedroom. Children in “heavy” TV households are less likely to read. Read the study.

The Center for Public Broadcasting released data in March 2003 demonstrated that lower-income children lag far behind in internet access and use. Read the study (opens an 8-page PDF document).

By 2003, 35% of US kids aged 2 to 5 had access to the Internet--compared with 6% in the year 2000. For kids 6 to 8, the figure rose to 60% from 27%. Playing games is the favorite activity (87%), followed by listening to music (63%). Study by AOL & Digital Marketing Services, reported by CommonSenseMedia.org Oct. 2003

Large numbers of kids have TVs in their room--and those kids tend to have fewer parental rules for media usage, to call themselves 'multi-taskers', and to be more ad-responsive than other kids. 61% of youth aged 8-17 have TV's in their bedrooms--but only 9% have internet access there. Study by Knowledge Networks/SRI, reported by CommonSenseMedia.org Oct. 2003

The Gallup Organization's 2003 online survey of 517 adolescents found that not only have 71% of teenage boys played the ultra violent "Grand Theft Auto" video games, but twice as many boys who've played these games reported being in a physical fight, than boys who had not played (34 percent to 17 percent). 62% of teenagers plays video games at least one hour per week; 25 percent play six or more hours per week; and more than one-third spend no time playing video games.
Reported in MEDIAWISE eNews, Sept. 23, 2003, from National Institute on Media & the Family.