The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight, 2020
For the first time, young kids spend more time watching online videos than doing any other activity on screens. But the content they're seeing on sites like YouTube and TikTok lacks educational value and, in many cases, exposes young children to advertising, violence, and other content that's inappropriate for their ages.
Our fourth iteration of the Common Sense Census: Zero to Eight (ISSN: 2694-4499) is paired with a sister report, YouTube and Kids: How Ads, Toys, and Games Dominate Viewing, to better understand just how the media landscape can be improved for our youngest children. The explosion of online video viewing matters when we consider YouTube's role as the largest free platform for online video in the world. But we also learned that the gap in screen time continues to widen across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, and progress on closing the digital divide has stalled.