34% of kindergarten pupils spend at least an hour a day on social media, study shows
One in three Hong Kong kindergarten pupils spends at least an hour a day on social media, with more than 80 per cent of parent-child disputes linked to excessive screen time, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Institute of Family Education released the findings on Wednesday showing recreational screen time rose sharply with age, with 60 per cent of junior form students and 66.6 per cent of high…
A recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Family Education has revealed that 34.7% of Hong Kong kindergarten pupils spend at least an hour a day on social media, exceeding the Department of Health's recommended limit of one hour for children aged two to five. Of the surveyed parents, 63.9% have had conflicts with their children over social media use, with 85.5% of those disputes stemming from excessive usage.
The majority of these conflicts occur when parents try to limit screen time, but children resist. The study also found that as students progress from junior secondary school to higher education, parent-child conflicts related to social media use increase, from 48.5% to 56.7%, due to academic pressure and children using social media for stress relief.
Many parents are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) for advice on raising children, with the majority of AI users being parents of kindergarten and primary school children. AI is primarily used for activity planning and homework help, with some parents employing it to generate practice questions for exams. Despite concerns over excessive screen time, some parents, like Mazon Tsang, view AI as a collaborative tool and use parental-control apps to limit their children's screen time to 30 minutes daily.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
