What’s the Matter With Kids Today? TV.

by Dave Zornow

Paul Lynde’s musical complaint in Bye Bye Birdie — echoed by the parents of baby boomers in the 60’s — still resonates with today’s parents. Too much TV.

Nielsen says Kids 2-11 are watching more television than they have in years. The under six set averages 32 hours or more in front of the set each week with Children ages 6-11 clocking in at 28 hours. The ratings company notes that their time is less because of that whole “school” thing which gets in the way of TV.

One trend kids *haven’t* adopted is DVR playback as 97 percent of all viewing is live. Younger kids watch more playback than 6-11 suggesting that parents are recording and playing back programs for the youngest viewers.

Fortunately, they don’t spend all of their time watching TV. Nielsen says K6-11 also spend about 2 1/3 hours each week playing video games too. Internet usage is up fr this group too, although Nielsen didn’t specify if the children were on line watching Hulu or downloading cheat codes for their gaming sessions.