This is how much time your children are spending staring at screens
![Alfie Latimer (4) from Dubai looks at an exhibit in the Science Museum, London August 4, 2015. London's Science Museum, and Natural History Museum are first and second most Googled Museums in the world according to London and Partners. The same research claims London is also the most Googled city in the world for art galleries, performing arts and innovative art and design. REUTERS/Paul Hackett TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - LR2EB84177MS2](https://assets.weforum.org/article/image/large_xvxSvqKsMsB4ov13DeLJ-zdMnNWmE1Fv_-Rsx4VDQnQ.jpg)
Only three percent of parents in the U.S. said they want their child to play more with electronic devices. Image: REUTERS/Paul Hackett
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Do you have the feeling your child spends most of its life glued to a screen? The good news is, you're not alone in thinking this, the bad news - your assumption is probably correct. According to a survey of U.S. parents and caregivers by Gallup, the average child spends the largest share of its free time on screen-based activities. When looking at 2 to 10 year olds, parents reported that their kids spend 18.6 hours on screen-based play in a usual week.
As our infographic shows, this trumps indoor screen-free play by four hours. While the majority of respondents in the survey said they would like their children to play more outdoors, parents are apparently too often left to lament poor weather conditions (36 percent), do not feel it is safe to send their child out without an adult (34 percent) or say that there is a lack of other kids or a suitable area to play (33 percent).
Only three percent of parents said they want their child to play more with electronic devices, but again, a number of barriers were cited as to why this is often not possible. The top hindrance is simply that the child wants to use these devices more than anything else (58 percent). Perhaps worryingly, 31 percent also said that their child needs guidance to find non-screen-based things to do when playing indoors.
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