U.S. kids spending close to an hour a day consuming mobile media

Young people in the U.S. now spend 49 minutes each day listening to music, playing games and watching video content on their mobile phones according to a new study issued by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation--by comparison, kids spend 33 minutes per day talking on their phones. The Kaiser report states that 66 percent of young people ages 8 to 18 now own mobile handsets, up from 39 percent five years ago--in addition, 76 percent own iPods or rival MP3 players, increasing from 18 percent five years earlier. The Kaiser Family Foundation adds that although the amount of time spent watching regularly-scheduled TV dropped by 25 minutes a day between 2004 and 2009--the first-ever decline reported over the course of the study--total television consumption increased from 3 hours and 51 minutes to 4 hours and 29 minutes per day thanks to the rise in alternative, time-shifted viewing channels like mobile phones and portable media devices.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that teens in grades 7 to 12 now spend an average of 95 minutes per day sending or receiving text messages. Time spent texting was not counted as media use in the study.

For more on the Kaiser Family Foundation survey:
- read this release