Summertime gives kids more freedom to play -- and to play with media. One reason: kids using more media/digital devices.
Almost half of parents said they allowed children to consume "more" television, at 49%, and 46% for video games, in the summer. When asked whether they allow kids to consume "much more," those results rang up a 23% number for some parents; and 24% when it came to video games. This information was tallied from a Adweek/Harris Poll survey.
Parents look to keep kids occupied when school is out. And while going to the beach, playing outside and doing formal sports is a big piece of the action, so is extra media time.
But there are also parents who push children in another direction: 16% have their kids watch less TV in the summer; 13% spend less time with video games; and 13% are interacting less with the Internet. And 14% of parents have their kids spend less time with movies.
What about media rules? About one-quarter of parents say they do not loosen media consumption rules in the summer. Some 17% say they have no rules at all when it come to their children's media consumption.
Much of the increase in media activity comes from kids having their own digital devices.
Seventy percent of parents of children 17 or younger living at home say their child has a handheld gaming device; 59% say their child has a television in their bedroom; and 52% say their child has their own personal computer.
The survey polled almost 3,000 U.S. adults online between August 5 and 9, 2011 by Harris Interactive.