Common Sense Media surveyed U.S. tweens and teens (ages 9 to 17) to understand how they spend their free time across today’s media landscape, including time with television, online videos, short-form content, gaming, social media, and generative AI tools such as chatbots and companions. Findings include:

• Platforms and products intended for older users, like AI chatbots and social media, are already popular with children under 13
• A typical teen spends about eight hours a day on screen media for entertainment, while a typical tween spends about five hours, and more than 4 in 10 teens are spending 10 or more hours a day.
• TV and video, including short-form content, is the single biggest chunk of that time for both age groups
• Personal smartphone ownership nearly doubles from age 9 to 10, and crosses the halfway point at age 11

Survey Methodology

Data collection was conducted from April 29 to May 11, 2026, among a sample of 1,211 tweens and teens through their parents, who are members of the SSRS Opinion Panel. The survey was conducted via web in English (1,168) and Spanish (43). Data was weighted to represent the target population of youth age 9 to 17. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is ± 3.2 percentage points.