Tipping point for teenagers as they prefer internet and phones to TV

More than a quarter, 28 per cent, of 12-to-15-year-olds interviewed said they would miss their phones, and one in four said they would miss internet access compared to fewer than one in five for TV.

It is the first time teenagers have chosen their phones and the internet over TV, according to media regulator Ofcom, which conducted the survey and found 24 per cent would miss TV the most when the same question was asked last year.

However, despite TV no longer dominating the affections of young people, the same study found children are spending more time watching TV.

Those aged four to 15 watched a weekly average of 17 hours and 34 minutes last year, almost two hours more than the 15 hours and 37 minutes of 2007.

Sue Palmer, a specialist in child development and an author, said that by starting to watch television at increasingly early ages, children were developing bad habits that were hard to break later in life.

She said: “It begins to become a default habit. If you watch a lot when you’re young, it becomes the thing that you do – you become attuned to the pace of it, because things happen so much quicker on TV and there’s so much more happening than there is in real life, so real life can become a bit boring.”

The study also found that nearly all, 95 per cent, of 12-to-15-year-olds now have internet access at home through a PC or laptop, up from 89 per cent in 2010 and 77 per cent in 2007.

The figures revealed that children appear to be becoming more aware of risks online, with 12 per cent of eight-to-11-year-olds with a social networking profile saying they talk to people not directly known to them, down from 22 per cent in 2010.

The figure for 12-to-15-year-olds fell to 24 per cent from 32 per cent in 2010.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards described the almost universal use of the internet at home as “a positive step forward”.

“The research also shows that parents and children are increasingly aware of how to be safe when using the internet. However, risks do remain.

“Better understanding – among parents as well as their children – is the key to helping people to manage content and communications.”

However, Ms Palmer voiced concern at the increasing dominance of screen-based activities in children’s lives and potential effects: “The thing that they need when they’re growing is real interaction with real people because that’s how you learn your social skills. It really does take a childhood’s worth of interaction to become properly socialised. Real interaction in real time and real space is how you build up your common sense.”

The regulator interviewed 1,717 parents and children aged five-to-15 earlier this year.

Analysis of children’s tele-vision viewing habits sourced from BARB, the UK’s television measurement panel, was also used for the study.