James Warren
FOR years, video posting site Youtube has been the go to site to kill time for the nation’s youngsters.
Easy to use and easy to upload, the site contains nearly everything a kid could ask for, cartoons, dancing, animals and people falling off things.
According to a recent study by Qustodio, children between the ages of four and 15 spent on average 75 minutes per day scrolling through the videos during lockdown.
The study was designed to understand the viewing habits of a younger audience and how Spain’s state of alarm has affected the amount of time spent on social media.
Number one app for a number of years has been the image and story app Instagram, which showed an increase of 24% during lockdown to a whopping 89 minutes per day.
Youtube’s reign as most popular video app is under threat as the new TikTok craze is sweeping Spain with a vengance.
TikTok follows a similar platform as Youtube, but limits the length of the video, spawning many dance crazes that children find irresistible not to attempt.
During lockdown, use of TikTok increased 150% to 71 minutes per day.
“The coronavirus state of alarm has accelerated a trend that was already happening” read the Qustodio report.
Since its birth in 2016, TikTok has steadily taken over the market as a leading social media platform.
In 2019 it became the fourth most popular download on Itunes and Google Play and has a massive 800 million users worldwide.
“The trend seems to be that users are steering away from TV platforms and moving onto entertainment apps and unscripted media such as Netflix, Youtube and TikTok.
Mobile game usage also increased during the quarantine, with kids playing the likes of Brawl Stars, Clash Royale and Roblox for up to 50 minutes per day.
