In times of corona, more gaming and social media use

The children and adolescents spent almost two hours on weekdays before Corona on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok or other platforms. That increased to more than three hours a day during the initial lockdown with closed schools in April 2020. In autumn, when schools were mostly open, but the leisure activities were still severely limited, use fell again to just under two and a half hours a day, but was still well above the pre-Corona level.

A similar development can be seen in games: Before Corona, the surveyed children and adolescents were occupied with computer or online games for an average of one hour and 23 minutes on weekdays; in April 2020 during the first lockdown, usage increased sharply to two hours and twelve minutes a day. In November 2020 it was still almost two hours a day.

In the course of the pandemic, a certain relaxation had set in, said DAK CEO Andreas Storm. “The children and adolescents again had alternatives to the online world, which they also used. That is a positive development”. The usage times would have to be kept in view in order to reduce the risk of increasing media addiction. The drug commissioner of the federal government, Daniela Ludwig (CSU), said it was important “to look carefully at what the kids are doing with digital media, how they can make good use of the time with and without a mobile phone or game console. That means: sometimes in a targeted manner” be offline “.