The IET polled 1,000 parents whose children belong to Generation Alpha (children born after 2010), finding that 57 per cent of them spend the majority of their free time on online platforms, equating to one whole day (23 hours) every week. 

This figure is even higher when looking at 12 and 13-year-olds, of which 67 and 66 per cent spend most of their recreational time online. 

The research also highlighted the increasing amount of time that Generation Alpha children spend exploring virtual reality (VR) technology. According to the parents, two-thirds (66 per cent) of children have now used VR and a quarter (25 per cent) do so every week.

These percentages show a rise in the popularity of the technology, with kids’ engagement with VR growing by 320 per cent in the past year alone, from 15 per cent in 2022. As a result, the IET predicts that Generation Alpha will spend more than a decade of their lives in VR.

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