Daily screen time by 8 year old boys in UK has risen from 2.7 hours to 5.5 hours in 20 years

"Stretching back to 1995, Childwise found that on average, eight-year-old boys watched 2.7 hours of TV per day. Whereas in 2015, screen time had expanded to include new platforms and jumped to 5.5 hours (2.3 hours watching TV, 1.3 hours on internet, 1.5 hours on console, 0.4 hours on mobile).
For eight-year-old girls, screen time in 1995 also consisted of 2.7 hours spent watching TV daily. Meanwhile this year, the same age group logged 3.8 hours of screen time (2.1 hours watching TV, 0.8 hours on internet, 0.6 hours on console, 0.3 hours on mobile).
With stats like this, the report predicts future generations will be more likely to access content like TV shows via tablet or phablet, rather than a traditional TV set, laptop or PC.
Thanks to the popularity of the tablet with this demo, the device is likely to reach similar ownership levels as smartphones, and ownership of laptops and PCs is predicted to fall.
As more kids own these portable devices (which can be difficult for parents to regulate), protecting kids from inappropriate content online will be a continuing issue going forward.
In addition, the report found that traditional social networks like Facebook will continue to decline in popularity, while photo and video-sharing sites like YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat gain traction with young people.
On the mobile phone front, the study suggests these devices will become a hub, used to coordinate other tech devices. For example, kids will use their phones to interact with the television, either indirectly through second-screen viewing or as a controller.
Looking at the next five years, Childwise predicts there will be a convergence of technology currently in use. Some children may choose phablets instead of the current combo of phone and tablet/laptop. Televisions are likely to be increasingly connected to the internet, allowing for streaming of content from portable devices to the big screen.
Over the next 10 years, these digital natives are likely to find household appliances that cannot be controlled by smartphone, or some kind of online dashboard, outdated and/or increasingly rare. The report also suggests that wearable technology will have progressed significantly by this point."
Source:  Press release from Childwise, 27th March 2015