Minors spend four hours a day hooked on TikTok and YouTube

During the past year, the tools of artificial intelligence They also crept into homes as another learning tool and to help schoolchildren with their homework, and although experts have valued that when used well they can offer new ways of understanding content and helping to organize ideas, misuse can replace reasoning and creativity and make it difficult for children to learn on their own.

The data and arguments are highlighted in the annual report carried out by the international platform Qustodio, specialized in digital security and well-being for families, and which for its work corresponding to 2025 has analyzed the data of 400,000 families with children between 4 and 18 years old from six countries (Brazil, Spain, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia).

Video consumption has decreased slightly (from 39 to 37 minutes a day) and YouTube It is the preferred platform globally, followed by Disney +, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, and the consumption of short videos has grown significantly, due to its fast pace and visual format, which makes them more attractive and addictive.

The psychologist Gloria Rodríguez Ben stressed this Monday, during the presentation of the work to the press in Madrid, that constant exposure to short videos can cause overstimulation in children that reduces their attention span and patience for activities that require more time or effort, and has therefore stressed the importance of accompanying minors and establishing appropriate limits to promote a balanced use of technology.

Networks, especially TikTok e Instagramcontinue to be the preferred ‘pastime’ of young people, who ‘spend’ more than an hour a day on them (64 minutes), and Spain also leads the list among the six countries that have been the subject of the study, with an average of 77 minutes a day.

Rodríguez Ben and the platform’s communications manager, Emily Lawrenson, stressed that networks are “determining” for minors, since they influence how they see themselves and how they understand the world, and the importance of creating a healthy ‘wall’ and building it from conscious choice.

The use of internet and networks is not in itself negative, they said, and highlighted the importance of ‘accompaniment’, of education, of not prohibiting but establishing limits, and also of the older ones acting as models for the younger ones and setting limits for themselves.

Video games fall and the time spent has decreased by about 5 minutes compared to the 2024 figures, and it continues to stand out among the most popular in mobile applications Roblox (76 minutes a day globally; 63 minutes in Spain), followed by Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Among Us and Stumble Guys, and Qustodio experts warned that chats that include video games are becoming a scene of threats for minors.

They therefore stressed the importance of supervising these video games and paying attention to factors such as contact with strangers, the use of inappropriate language and harassment situations, to protect privacy and avoid uncomfortable situations, in addition to limiting or deactivating chat, supervising games and encouraging playing only with friends.

The use of educational tools or applications (Minecraft: Education; Kahoot!, Gauth, Duolingo or Photomath) continues to stagnate at about 6 minutes per day, and the time that young people spend on communication applications (Snapchat, WhatsAppDiscord o Microsoft Teams.

The psychologist stressed the danger that single-view messages pose in these applications, since even if they disappear from the screen they can be captured, recorded or shared, and has stressed that young people must understand that “digital is never totally temporary.”