Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How much video children watch at each age in the U.S., the UK and elsewhere, which platforms and shows they watch, how much of the biggest YouTube channels' output is made for kids, the COPPA rules and fines behind YouTube's made-for-kids setting, what health bodies recommend, the child influencer laws, and where the popular kids' video numbers came from.
806 of the 5,799 uploads the most-subscribed YouTube channels posted in October 2026 were set as made for kids, and they drew 15.3% of all views. (Our count from the YouTube Data API)See details
Counting each channel with at least one such video once, made-for-kids regular videos drew 1.5 likes per 1,000 views, against 7.6 for regular videos not made for kids, and all 806 made-for-kids uploads showed no comments. (Our calculation)See details
U.S. children 8 and under averaged 2:27 of screen media a day in 2024, and about 42 minutes of it was online video. (Common Sense Media; our calculation)See details
85% of U.S. parents of a child 12 or under said in 2025 that the child watches YouTube, and 62% of parents of a child under 2 said so. (Pew Research Center)See details
50.4% of U.S. teens aged 12 to 17 had 4 or more hours of daily screen time on most weekdays in 2021-2023, not counting schoolwork. (CDC National Center for Health Statistics)See details
UK children aged 4 to 15 watched 7 hours 7 minutes of YouTube a week at home in 2025, 2.8 times their live broadcast TV. (Ofcom; our calculation)See details
YouTube's latest published count for YouTube Kids is 35 million weekly viewers, from February 2021. (YouTube)See details
Google and YouTube paid $170 million in 2019 to settle COPPA charges; in 2025 Disney agreed to pay $10 million over YouTube videos it had not labeled as made for kids. (Federal Trade Commission)See details
The American Academy of Pediatrics' January 2026 policy calls brief, high-quality video not detrimental for infants, while the Surgeon General's May 2026 advisory suggests no screens under 18 months and less than 1 hour per day under age 6. (AAP; U.S. Surgeon General)See details
The widely repeated 'kids watch about 90 minutes of YouTube a day' traces to Qustodio, a parental-control company measuring its own customers' devices; its 2025 U.S. figure is 86 minutes. (Qustodio)See details
'Children see 40,000 ads a year' is a pre-2004 television estimate; the FTC measured about 25,600 TV ads a year in 2004. (APA; FTC)See details
How much screen time and video do young children get?
About two and a half hours a day in the United States, and most of it is watching. U.S. children age 8 and under averaged 2:27 (2 hours 27 minutes) of screen media a day in 2024, about the same as in early 2020, in the 2025 Common Sense census, a probability-based survey of 1,578 parents fielded by Ipsos in August 2024 Common Sense Media. Time climbs with age: one hour and three minutes a day for children under 2, two hours and eight minutes for ages 2 to 4, and 3:28 for ages 5 to 8 Common Sense Media. On a given day, 1 in 5 children 8 and under used screens for four hours or more, while 27% used none Common Sense Media.
Television and video are the bulk of it. Children 8 and under spent 1:28 a day watching TV and videos in 2024, down from 1:45 in 2020, which was 60% of their screen time, down from 73% in 2020 Common Sense Media. Online video is part of that: 28 minutes a day of longer videos on apps such as YouTube, and 14 minutes of short videos on TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts Common Sense Media. By our calculation that is 42 minutes of online video a day, 29% of all screen time. 36% of children 8 and under watched online videos such as YouTube every day, up from 24% in 2017 Common Sense Media.
The devices arrive early. By age 2, 40% of U.S. children had their own tablet, and by age 4, 58% did; by age 8, 23% had their own cellphone Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media is a nonprofit that rates media and sells no advertising; the times are parents' reports of a typical day, not metered viewing. The report itself is not fully consistent: it gives TV and video as 60% of screen time in one place and 64% in another, and its own tables support 60%.
Government surveys count screen time by hours, not by activity. In the 2020 National Health Interview Survey, 47.5% of U.S. children aged 2 to 5 spent more than 2 hours a weekday in front of a screen outside schoolwork, rising to 80.2% of those aged 12 to 17 CDC National Center for Health Statistics. In the 2021 National Survey of Children's Health, only 39.9% of preschoolers aged 3 to 5 had an hour or less on most weekdays HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the federal Healthy People 2030 tracker found 44.8 percent of children aged 2 to 5 at or under an hour in 2022-23, against a national target of 49.3% Healthy People 2030, HHS.
How much video do tweens and teens watch?
About an hour a day of online video for tweens and closer to an hour and a half for teens, in Common Sense Media's last tweens-and-teens census. U.S. 8- to 12-year-olds spent 57 minutes a day watching online videos in fall 2021, and 13- to 18-year-olds 1:22 (1 hour 22 minutes), up from 59 minutes in 2019 Common Sense Media. 77% of teens watched online video every day in 2021, up from 69% in 2019 Common Sense Media. Online video viewing had already more than doubled for tweens between the 2015 and 2019 censuses, from 25 to 56 minutes a day Common Sense Media, and by our calculation teens' daily online video rose 39% from 2019 to 2021.
The totals are larger because they count all entertainment screen media and add up activities done at the same time. Tweens used 5:33 of entertainment screen media a day in 2021 and teens 8:39, up from 7:22 in 2019 Common Sense Media. Asked which one site they would not want to live without, 32% of teens who regularly use social media and online video picked YouTube, ahead of Snapchat Common Sense Media. In 2019, 76% of tweens said they used YouTube, though YouTube's terms set 13 as the minimum age for the main site Common Sense Media.
Federal surveys show the same scale. From July 2021 to December 2023, 50.4% of U.S. teenagers aged 12 to 17 had 4 hours or more of daily screen time on most weekdays, excluding schoolwork, rising to 55.0% of those aged 15 to 17 CDC National Center for Health Statistics. Teens with 4 or more hours were more likely to report anxiety symptoms, 27.1% against 12.3% of those with less, an association rather than proof of cause CDC NCHS. In the 2024 National Survey of Children's Health, 48.1% of school-aged children 6 to 17 had 2 hours or less on most weekdays HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
When adolescents in the NIH-funded ABCD Study were asked in May 2020, early in the pandemic, they reported a mean of 7.70 hours a day of non-school screen use, against 3.8 hours before the pandemic Nagata et al., JAMA Pediatrics. Watching or streaming videos, movies or TV was the largest single use, at 2.42 hours a day Nagata et al., JAMA Pediatrics.
On platforms, YouTube still reaches the most teens. In Pew Research Center's fall 2025 survey of 1,458 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17, 92% said they use YouTube, 76% use it daily and 17% use it almost constantly Pew Research Center. TikTok had more teens on it almost constantly, 21% in 2025, up from 16% in 2022 Pew Research Center, and 40% of teens said they are online almost constantly Pew Research Center.
How many young children watch YouTube?
Most of them, and younger every year. In May 2025, 85% of U.S. parents of a child 12 or younger said the child ever watches YouTube, about half of them daily, in Pew Research Center's survey of 3,054 parents Pew Research Center. Among children under 2 the share rose from 45% in 2020 to 62% in 2025 Pew Research Center. 74% of parents said they watch YouTube together with the child Pew Research Center. Other platforms are far behind for this age group: 15% of parents said the child uses TikTok, more than Snapchat or Instagram Pew Research Center. 86% of parents said they have rules about screens, but only 19% said they stick to them consistently Pew Research Center.
The trend runs through three Pew surveys. In mid-2018, 81% of parents of a child 11 or younger said they let the child watch YouTube, and 34% said the child did so regularly Pew Research Center, 2018. In March 2020, 80% said the child watches YouTube, and 53% of those said daily Pew Research Center, 2020. By our calculation, the share of under-2s watching rose 17 percentage points in five years. Pew's surveys do not separate the YouTube Kids app from main YouTube.
How many children use YouTube Kids?
YouTube's own last published count is 35 million weekly viewers in more than 80 countries, in February 2021 YouTube Official Blog. The app launched in the U.S. on February 23, 2015YouTube Official Blog, and two years later YouTube said it had 8 million weekly active viewers YouTube Official Blog, 2017, so by our calculation weekly viewers grew 4.4 times between 2017 and 2021. In 2021 YouTube added a supervised experience on main YouTube for tweens, with 3 content settings parents can choose from YouTube Official Blog. In Australia, 44% of children aged 10 to 15 surveyed in 2024-25 had ever used YouTube Kids, 59% of 10- to 12-year-olds eSafety Commissioner.
What do parents say their children run into on YouTube?
Content they think is wrong for the child's age, and a great deal of advertising. In 2020, 46% of U.S. parents whose child 11 or younger watches YouTube said the child had come across videos there that were inappropriate for their age, and 73% were at least somewhat concerned it would happen Pew Research Center. In 2018 the share reporting unsuitable content was 61%Pew Research Center, 2018. When Common Sense Media and the University of Michigan coded 1,639 videos that children 8 and under had recently watched on main YouTube in spring 2020, 95% of the early-childhood videos contained some form of advertising Common Sense Media.
What children's shows do families stream the most?
Bluey, on Nielsen's count of U.S. streaming watched on TV sets. Bluey was the most-streamed title of any kind in the U.S. in 2024, with 55.62 billion viewing minutes on Disney+ Nielsen, and children aged 2 to 11 accounted for 43% of those minutes Nielsen. It led again in 2025 with 45.2 billion minutes Nielsen, down 19% by our calculation. Nielsen's top children's movie of 2025 was KPop Demon Hunters, at 20.6 billion minutes on Netflix Nielsen. In 2021, CoComelon logged 33.3 billion minutes of U.S. streaming, and its core audience of 2- to 5-year-olds watched each episode nearly three times on average in the fourth quarter alone Nielsen. Nielsen is a measurement company that sells this data. Its 2024 and 2025 title rankings cover the subscription services, from Netflix and Disney+ to Peacock, and leave out YouTube, so they cannot rank the biggest YouTube kids' channels against Bluey.
Netflix publishes its own viewing data twice a year. Kids and family titles were 15% of all Netflix viewing worldwide from July to December 2023 Netflix. In the second half of 2025, Peppa Pig drew 90M views across its seasons, alongside Gabby's Dollhouse and Ms. Rachel Netflix, and Ms. Rachel was Netflix's most-watched kids title from January to June 2026 with 69M views Netflix. Netflix counts a "view" as hours watched divided by the title's runtime.
How much of the biggest YouTube channels' output is made for kids?
About one upload in seven, and a larger share of the views. We re-cut the public dataset from our YouTube engagement rate study, which read every upload that 83 of the 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels posted from October 1 to 28, 2026, through the YouTube Data API on October 30, 2026. 806 of 5,799 uploads were set as made for kids, from 26 of the 83 channels, and 16 channels set every upload in the window that way. Those uploads drew 15.3% of all views. The pull is strongest on Shorts: made-for-kids Shorts were 13.7% of the Shorts posted but drew 20.8% of all Shorts views, while made-for-kids regular videos drew 7.9% of regular-video views. One Indian channel, JioHotstar Kids, posted 390 of the 806 made-for-kids uploads, so counts per video lean on it; the per-channel medians below count each channel once.
Made-for-kids videos run long and get few public reactions. The median made-for-kids regular video ran 19.5 minutes, against 10.3 minutes for the biggest channels' other regular videos, and 46% ran 20 minutes or longer, most of them compilations of songs or episodes. All 806 made-for-kids uploads showed no comments, because YouTube switches comments off on them YouTube Help. Likes are the only public reaction left. Counting each channel once (every channel with at least one such upload), the typical channel's made-for-kids regular videos drew 1.5 likes per 1,000 views, against 7.6 for other regular videos, and its made-for-kids Shorts 9.1, against 16.6 for other Shorts. Measured per video, the median made-for-kids regular video drew 3.0 likes per 1,000 views across 398 videos. A kids' channel judged against general engagement-rate benchmarks will look weak; compare it with other made-for-kids channels.
A second sample points the same way. Of the latest uploads of the most-subscribed channels that our YouTube tags, titles and descriptions study read on October 29, 2026, 78 of the 487 regular videos and 105 of the 574 Shorts were made for kids. None of the 78 made-for-kids regular videos had a caption track uploaded by the channel, where 23% of the other regular videos did. 21% had chapters, against 6% of other regular videos, and their descriptions were longer: a median 1,948 characters, 2.3 times the others. 5 of the 183 made-for-kids videos and Shorts carried YouTube's paid promotion label, all from two kids' channels, Like Nastya and Vlad and Niki.
How much video do children watch in the UK and elsewhere?
In the UK, children now watch nearly three times as much YouTube at home as live broadcast TV. Children aged 4 to 15 averaged 7 hours 7 minutes of YouTube a week at home in 2025, up 8% on 2024 Ofcom, against 2 hours 32 minutes of live broadcast TV, about 24% less than a year earlier Ofcom. That is 2.8 times as much YouTube as live TV, by our calculation. Across all video-sharing platforms, including TikTok and Twitch, 4- to 15-year-olds watched 8 hours 45 minutes a week Ofcom. Per day, they watched more YouTube at home than any other age group, 61 minutesOfcom, and 54% of their in-home YouTube viewing was on a TV set, up from 35% in 2022 Ofcom. These figures come from Barb's industry panel, which measures viewing in the home only. Younger children watch almost as much as older ones: 6 hours 47 minutes a week of YouTube for 4- to 9-year-olds in 2025 Ofcom.
Away from the TV set the picture is similar. Ofcom metered the phones, tablets and computers of 692 online children aged 8 to 14 from November 2024 to March 2025: they spent 48 minutes a day on YouTube, more than on any other service, and 96% used it Ofcom. In Ofcom's surveys, YouTube was used to watch videos by 84% of 3- to 17-year-olds in 2024, ahead of TikTok Ofcom, 68% of 13- to 17-year-olds watched videos on TikTok Ofcom, and 66% of 3- to 17-year-olds watched livestreams, up from 58% in 2022 Ofcom. In late 2025, 66% of 8- to 14-year-olds said they had used YouTube in the past four weeks, the most of any app Ofcom. 70% of 13- to 17-year-olds had watched YouTube Shorts in the past three months in 2026 Ofcom. And children make video too: 36% of 13- to 17-year-olds said they upload videos, against 22% of 8- to 12-year-olds Ofcom. 40% of UK children under 13 had their own profile on at least one social media app or site in 2024, though most set 13 as the minimum age Ofcom.
Australia's online safety regulator found the same pattern. In a survey of 1,504 children in September 2024, 80% of 8- to 12-year-olds had used at least one of eight social media services, YouTube included, from January to September 2024, and YouTube was the most used, by 68% of them eSafety Commissioner. Among 10- to 15-year-olds surveyed in early 2025, 76% had ever used YouTube, ahead of TikTok at 56% eSafety Commissioner.
Elsewhere the counts are about screens in general. Across OECD countries, 15-year-olds spent 2 hours and 40 minutes a school day on digital devices for leisure in 2022 OECD, PISA 2022. Problematic social media use among 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in Europe, Central Asia and Canada rose from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022, and 34% played digital games daily WHO Regional Office for Europe, HBSC. In the EU Kids Online survey of 2017-2019, children aged 9 to 16 put their daily time online at 134 minutes in Switzerland up to 219 in Norway, and the share who watched video clips every day was as low as 43% in Slovakia EU Kids Online, LSE. In Canada, 62% of children aged 5 to 11 and 28% of youth aged 12 to 17 kept recreational screen time to two hours a day or less in 2022-2024 Statistics Canada.
What changed for kids' channels after the 2019 YouTube settlement?
Every channel now has to say whether its videos are made for kids, and YouTube switches off personalized ads, comments and a long list of features on the ones that are. In September 2019, Google and YouTube agreed to pay a record $170 million to settle Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General allegations that YouTube collected personal information from viewers of child-directed channels without parental consent FTC. $136 million went to the FTC, at the time by far its largest amount in a COPPA case, and $34 million to New York FTC. The complaint quoted Google and YouTube telling Mattel that "YouTube is today's leader in reaching children age 6-11 against top TV channels" FTC. The order required YouTube to build a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content and to tell channel owners such content may be covered by COPPA FTC.
YouTube said on the day of the settlement that in about four months it would treat data from anyone watching children's content as coming from a child, whatever the viewer's age YouTube, and it announced a $100 million fund over three years for original children's content YouTube. The changes rolled out worldwide from January 6, 2020YouTube. Today, setting a video or live stream as made for kids turns off, among other things, comments, live chat, the notification bell, channel memberships, Super Chat, merchandise, end screens and cards, save to playlist, the Miniplayer and personalized advertisingYouTube Help. Shorts follow the same rule: the upload flow asks every creator to choose Yes, it's made for kids or no before publishing YouTube Help. Paid ads inside the YouTube Kids app are limited to 15-20 seconds when non-skippable, must be approved by YouTube in advance, and cannot be targeted by interest YouTube Help.
The rule itself is the FTC's Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, under which a child is anyone under 13eCFR, 16 CFR 312.2. Its 2025 amendments, published on April 22, 2025, took effect on June 23, 2025Federal Register, with most compliance due by April 22, 2026Federal Register. Under the amended § 312.5(a)(2), children's data may still be used for targeted advertising, but only with a parent's separate opt-in consent Federal Register; operators must keep a written data retention policy under § 312.10eCFR and a written security program under § 312.8eCFR. The FTC received more than 175,000 comments when it opened the review in July 2019, a review that asked how the rule applies to general-audience platforms Federal Register. The maximum civil penalty is now $53,088 per violation eCFR, 16 CFR 1.98. This section summarizes rules as published; it is not legal advice.
What have regulators fined over children's data on video platforms?
The largest penalties have hit platforms and game makers, but in 2025 a major studio paid over how it labeled its own YouTube uploads. Disney agreed to a $10 million civil penalty to settle FTC allegations that it failed to mark some child-directed videos it uploaded to YouTube as made for kids FTC. According to the complaint, YouTube had told Disney in mid-2020 that it had moved more than 300 Disney videos from "not made for kids" to "made for kids" FTC.
Epic's $275 million is the largest penalty ever obtained for violating an FTC rule FTC. The TikTok settlement resolves the Justice Department's 2024 COPPA lawsuit: $300 million was due immediately and $100 million more once the court vacates the 2019 Musical.ly order U.S. Department of Justice. The UK regulator estimated TikTok had let up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 use the platform in 2020 ICO.
What rules apply to children's video outside the U.S.?
Stricter age lines, and fines tied to worldwide revenue. The UK's Age Appropriate Design Code, the "Children's code", is a set of 15 standards for online services likely to be used by children ICO; services had to conform by 2 September 2021ICO, and it treats anyone under 18 as a child, not just under-13s ICO. Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom's Protection of Children Codes set out more than 40 measures for sites and apps used by UK children Ofcom, in force from 25 July 2025Ofcom, and the Act lets Ofcom fine a service the greater of £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue legislation.gov.uk. On 15 June 2026 the UK government announced plans to bar social media platforms, YouTube included, from serving under-16s, with protections expected from Spring 2027; this is a plan, not yet law UK Government, DSIT.
In the EU, Article 28 of the Digital Services Act requires platforms that minors can use to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for them, and bars ads based on profiling minors EUR-Lex. The European Commission's guidelines on protecting minors, published on 14 July 2025, recommend private-by-default accounts and autoplay switched off by default European Commission. The Commission can fine a very large online platform up to 6 % of its worldwide annual turnover EUR-Lex.
Australia went furthest. Its Social Media Minimum Age law defines an age-restricted user as a child who has not reached 16 yearsFederal Register of Legislation, and the obligation took effect on 10 December 2025eSafety Commissioner. The eSafety Commissioner listed 10 services it considered likely to be age-restricted, YouTube among them, and YouTube Kids among those likely not to be eSafety Commissioner. Courts can fine a company up to $109.2 million (Australian dollars) for failing to take reasonable steps to keep under-16s off eSafety Commissioner. Earlier captures of eSafety's page gave lower maximums, so older articles quote smaller figures.
How much screen time do pediatric and health bodies recommend?
Most still say no more than about an hour a day for preschoolers, but the American Academy of Pediatrics dropped its strict infant rule in January 2026. Its 2016 statement "Media and Young Minds" told pediatricians to discourage screen media other than video-chatting for children younger than 18 months and to limit children aged 2 to 5 to 1 hour per day of high-quality programming American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016. The replacement, "Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents", says infants do not learn from digital media but that occasionally watching brief, high-quality videos such as Sesame Street is not detrimentalAAP, 2026. Where families want a number, it suggests limits from <1 hour/d for toddlers and preschoolers to 1 to 2 hours/d or more of entertainment media for school-aged children and teens AAP, 2026.
The U.S. Surgeon General's May 2026 advisory on screen use sets firmer lines: none for children under 18 months, less than 1 hour per day for children under 6, and 2 hours per day for ages 6 to 18 Office of the Surgeon General, 2026. It cites the AAP's 2026 statement for those limits, but that statement has no 18-month cut-off, so the two now disagree on infants.
How many children are there to count? The U.S. had 72,021,348 residents under 18 on July 1, 2025, down 2.4% since 2020 U.S. Census Bureau, and 39% of families had their own children under 18 at home in 2025, down from 54% in 1975 U.S. Census Bureau.
What is the kids' video business worth?
The clearest public numbers come from the toy and entertainment companies that market through children's video, and from the channels' own counts. Mattel spent $522.0 million on advertising and promotion in 2025, 9.8% of net sales Mattel 10-K, and Hasbro $316.9 million, 6.7% of net revenues Hasbro 10-K. Hasbro's Entertainment segment, built around Peppa Pig and My Little Pony, booked $76.8 million of revenue, $66.7 million of it from family brands Hasbro 10-K. Spin Master spent $235.5 million on marketing, 11.1% of revenue Spin Master; its Entertainment segment, home of PAW Patrol, earned $145.2 million, down 8.4%, while its digital games grew 21.0% Spin Master, and it says its studio has made over 300 animated short-form pieces for digital platforms, adding that children go to YouTube to find their favourite characters Spin Master. U.S. retail toy sales were $30.3 billion in 2025 in Circana's tracking, which covers 68% of the market The Toy Association, data from Circana, or about $45.6 billion projected to the whole market The Toy Association.
The biggest preschool channel shows the scale on YouTube. When Moonbug agreed in November 2021 to be bought by the Blackstone-backed company that became Candle Media, the companies said CoComelon had approximately 120 million subscribers, the second most of any YouTube channel, and did not disclose the price Moonbug and Blackstone. Three months later Moonbug said its channels drew over 9 billion views a month Moonbug Entertainment. Forbes estimated that Ryan Kaji of Ryan's World earned $29.5 million in its 2020 list, more than half of it from licensing Forbes estimate.
YouTube has tried to steer that money and attention. Besides the $100 million content fund it announced with the 2019 settlement, it said it removed over 1.8 million videos for breaking its child safety policies in the second quarter of 2021 alone YouTube. After building its kids and family quality principles into YouTube Kids recommendations, it said views of content meeting them rose over 45% in the app YouTube.
What do U.S. laws require when children appear in paid videos?
At least six states now make a family creator set aside part of the earnings from paid videos that feature a child. The common test, first in Illinois, counts a child under 16 as working when at least 30% of the creator's paid video content in a 30-day period features them, and requires a trust share of at least half of the child's content percentage, paid out at 18 Illinois General Assembly. The thresholds differ by state:
State
Enacted or in force
Who is covered
Money test
Source
Illinois (Public Act 103-0556)
July 1, 2024
Under 16, in at least 30% of paid video content in 30 days
These are summaries of the enacted texts as we read them in October 2026, not legal advice; each statute has exceptions and definitions not shown here.
What the popular kids' video numbers really say
These figures recur in parenting blogs, kids' marketing guides and testimony. Each was traced to the organization that first published it.
"Kids watch 85 to 100 minutes of YouTube a day"
Every version we traced comes from Qustodio, a company that sells parental-control software and measures its own customers' devices: more than 400,000 families with children aged 4 to 18. Its 2025 report put U.S. children at 86 minutes a day on YouTube Qustodio, 2025. Worldwide, children on its devices averaged 71 minutes/day in 2024 Qustodio. The "more than 90 minutes" lines usually come from its YouTube Kids figure, 97 minutes per day, which counts only children who used that app Qustodio, or from its May 2020 report, which said U.S. children watched nearly 100 minutes a day during the first lockdowns Qustodio, 2020. These are averages for families who bought monitoring software, not for all children. Use instead: a survey with a stated population, such as Common Sense Media's 42 minutes a day of online video for U.S. children 8 and under, or Ofcom's 61 minutes a day of YouTube at home for UK 4- to 15-year-olds.
"Children 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours a day on screens"
The number is real but it was never about screens. The Kaiser Family Foundation's 2010 survey found 8- to 18-year-olds spent 7:38 a day with entertainment media in 2009, a total that includes music, print and movies and counts overlapping activities separately KFF, 2010. A CDC infographic later restated it as "7.5 hours in front of a screen" CDC infographic, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Facts for Families page now says children 8 to 18 spend 7 1/2 hours a day watching or using screens, with no study cited AACAP. The page's February 2020 version said 4 to 6 hours for 8- to 12-year-olds and up to 9 for teens, a wording still republished UT Extension, which matches Common Sense Media's 2015 census: about nine hours, 8:56, of total media for teens, including music and print Common Sense Media, 2015. Use instead: Common Sense Media's 2021 figures, 5:33 of entertainment screen media for tweens and 8:39 for teens, or the CDC's count that 50.4% of teens had 4 hours or more on weekdays.
"Unboxing videos get billions of views, and kids drive them"
The often-quoted lines come from a November 2014 Think with Google article. It said views of YouTube videos with "unboxing" in the title grew 57% in a year Think with Google, 2014, Internet Archive, that unboxing videos uploaded in 2014 had more than a billion views that year, and that one in five consumers had watched one, in a poll of 1,500 consumers Think with Google. All three cover every product category and say nothing about children. YouTube's own newer count is 25 billion views of videos with "unboxing" in the title from January to October 2023, again across all categories and ages YouTube. Use instead: YouTube's 2023 count, labeled as all categories, and our own count of 5 of the 183 made-for-kids uploads carrying the paid promotion label.
"Videos with children get three times more views"
This comes from a Pew Research Center analysis of every video posted in the first week of 2019 by YouTube channels with 250,000 or more subscribers. English-language videos that featured a child who appeared to be under 13 got nearly three times as many views as other videos from those channels in their first week Pew Research Center, 2019. Only a small share of the videos featured a child, and most of those were not aimed at children. Videos that appeared to be aimed at children averaged 153,227 views Pew Research Center. Headlines turned it into a rule that videos with children beat "any other content" Tech Times, 2019. Use instead: Pew's figure with its scope, one week of popular English-language channels in 2019.
"CoComelon is the most-watched kids' show" and "Moonbug sold for $3 billion"
Both come from the companies or the press, not from a measurement that compares YouTube with streaming. Moonbug's 2020 release called CoComelon the world's most-viewed YouTube channel with over 3.5 billion average monthly views, its own count Moonbug release, via Licensing International. Nielsen said in February 2022, looking back on 2021, that CoComelon was likely the most-streamed kids title ever Nielsen, but by 2024 Nielsen's top title was Bluey, with 55.62 billion minutes, in rankings that leave out YouTube. The $3 billion price for Moonbug is a press estimate: the companies' own release said the terms were not disclosed Moonbug and Blackstone, and reporters' figures ranged from $2.75 billion to $3 billion Variety, 2021. Use instead: "reportedly about $3 billion; terms not disclosed".
"Children see 40,000 ads a year"
This is a television estimate from before YouTube. The American Psychological Association's 2004 task force report said the average child sees more than 40,000 television commercials a year, citing a 2001 estimate by one of its members American Psychological Association, 2004. The Federal Trade Commission's economists measured it with Nielsen data and found children aged 2 to 11 saw about 25,600 TV ads in 2004, and said the 40,000 estimate was more than 50 percent higher than its own FTC Bureau of Economics, 2007. By our calculation 40,000 is 56% above the FTC's figure. Neither applies to online video. Use instead: the FTC's figure with its year, and for YouTube, Common Sense Media's finding that 95% of the early-childhood videos children watched contained advertising.
"95% of teens and nearly 40% of 8- to 12-year-olds use social media"
Both are in the U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 advisory, which says up to 95% of youth aged 13 to 17 report using a social media platform and nearly 40% of children aged 8 to 12 use social media Surgeon General's Advisory, 2023. Its sources measured narrower things. The 95% is Pew's share of teens who ever use YouTube in 2022, 95%, not any platform. The 40% is Common Sense Media's 2021 share of tweens who had ever used social media; far fewer used it daily. The advisory's line that teens who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media face double the risk of poor mental health comes from one cohort study of 12- to 15-year-olds followed from 2013 to 2016, an association, not a measured cause Surgeon General's Advisory. The same advisory says 8th and 10th graders averaged 3.5 hours per day on social media in 2021 Surgeon General's Advisory. Use instead: Pew's current platform-by-platform counts above.
"YouTubers can be fined $42,000 per video"
After the 2019 settlement, FTC staff told channel owners the COPPA Rule allows civil penalties of up to $42,530 per violation, not per video, and that the FTC weighs factors such as a company's finances FTC, November 2019. The same guidance noted that the operator in another 2019 case paid $35,000 in total FTC. The maximum has since risen to $53,088 per violation. Use instead: the current maximum per violation, with the FTC's note that actual penalties depend on the facts.
We started from the questions people search for about kids video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 213 figures from 44 publishers.
On October 30, 2026, each of the 187 sourced figures on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: 185 matched against the publisher's page or file or a dated Internet Archive capture, and the other 2, from a PubMed Central article that answered the script with a bot check, matched in a headless browser the same day. 68 figures cite Internet Archive captures, because ofcom.org.uk, ftc.gov, hhs.gov, cdc.gov, the HRSA, eSafety and AAP journal sites and California's statute site refused automated requests. We left out what we could not read or check: Census Bureau API tables (the population figures here come from Census releases instead), Qustodio's full 2025 report PDF, which would not download, the Kaiser Family Foundation's full 2010 report (its press release is cited), New York's 2019 announcement of the YouTube settlement, which no longer loads, Ofcom's chart images and spreadsheets, and the paywalled Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal reports on Moonbug's price. The 26 figures marked as our calculations are listed with their formulas below; 18 of them recount the public datasets of our YouTube engagement rate and YouTube metadata studies, which read public video data through the YouTube Data API.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
per channel, median of 1000 * likes / views over its made-for-kids regular videos with 1,000+ views; median across 20 channels = 1.47; same for other regular videos across 56 channels = 7.56
per channel, median of 1000 * likes / views over its made-for-kids Shorts with 1,000+ views; median across 22 channels = 9.11; other Shorts across 53 channels = 16.60
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Most viewing figures are reports, not meters. Common Sense Media's census and the federal surveys ask parents or teens to estimate a typical day; only Ofcom's Barb figures and its device panel measure viewing directly, and Barb counts viewing at home only.
Totals are defined differently. Common Sense counts entertainment media outside school and adds activities done at the same time; the CDC and HRSA ask about hours in front of any screen on most weekdays; Qustodio measures app time on its customers' devices. Their numbers cannot be added or compared directly.
Several sources sell into this market. Nielsen sells audience measurement, Netflix and YouTube report on their own platforms, Qustodio sells parental controls, The Toy Association represents toy makers, and Mattel, Hasbro and Spin Master market to children. Each is labeled where it appears.
Our made-for-kids figures cover the biggest channels only: 83 of the 100 most-subscribed channels over four weeks of October 2026, and the latest uploads of the same list. One channel, JioHotstar Kids, posted almost half the made-for-kids uploads in the first sample, so we give per-channel medians alongside per-video ones. The setting is read as YouTube's API returns it; we did not judge which videos should carry it.
No source counts how many children watch made-for-kids content or how much of children's YouTube time is spent on it. YouTube has not published a YouTube Kids audience figure since February 2021.
Several surveys are old. Common Sense Media's last tweens-and-teens census was fielded in 2021, Pew's content analysis covers one week of 2019, and the EU Kids Online survey ran from 2017 to 2019.
Rules and guidance are summaries, not legal or medical advice, dated to the versions we read in October 2026. Penalty maximums are adjusted for inflation each year.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics#DRV-001. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Kids Video Statistics." Last verified Oct 30, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, October 30). Kids video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics
MLA
“Kids Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 30 Oct. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Kids Video Statistics.” Last modified October 30, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_kids_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Kids Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/kids-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-10-30}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is January 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Oct 30, 2026: First published with 213 figures from 44 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Oct 30, 2026: Corrected the same day: the FTC said the 40,000-ads estimate was more than 50 percent higher than its own figure, not too high; Nielsen's nearly three viewings per CoComelon episode were for the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, and its 'likely the most-streamed kids title ever' line was published in February 2022; and most U.S. children miss the screen-time limits, while in Canada 62% of 5- to 11-year-olds meet them, so the line no longer says few do.
Oct 30, 2026: Clarified the same day: the per-channel likes figures count every channel with at least one such upload, and online video is described as part of young children's viewing rather than a growing slice, since the shorter-video part rose while longer online videos fell.
Frequently asked questions
How much time do kids spend watching videos?
U.S. children 8 and under averaged 2:27 of screen media a day in 2024, 1:28 of it watching TV and videos, in Common Sense Media's survey of parents. U.S. teens aged 13 to 18 spent 1:22 a day watching online videos in 2021. In the UK, children aged 4 to 15 watched 8 hours 45 minutes a week of video-sharing platforms at home in 2025, according to Ofcom.
How many kids watch YouTube?
85% of U.S. parents of a child 12 or younger said in 2025 that the child watches YouTube, including 62% of parents of a child under 2, in Pew Research Center's survey. 92% of U.S. teens said they use YouTube in 2025. In the UK, 96% of online children aged 8 to 14 used YouTube on their phones, tablets or computers.
How many people use YouTube Kids?
YouTube's most recent published figure is 35 million weekly viewers in more than 80 countries, from February 2021, up from 8 million in 2017. YouTube has not published a newer count. In Australia, 44% of children aged 10 to 15 had ever used YouTube Kids.
What does setting a video as made for kids turn off on YouTube?
Comments, live chat, the notification bell, channel memberships, Super Chat, merchandise, end screens and cards, save to playlist, the Miniplayer and personalized advertising, among other features. The setting came out of Google and YouTube's $170 million COPPA settlement in 2019 and rolled out from January 6, 2020.
How much can the FTC fine a YouTube channel under COPPA?
Up to $53,088 per violation, the inflation-adjusted maximum since January 2025. It is per violation, not per video, and the FTC weighs factors such as a company's finances. Disney agreed to pay $10 million in 2025 over YouTube videos it had not labeled as made for kids. This is a summary, not legal advice.
How much screen time is recommended for kids?
Most health bodies suggest about an hour a day or less for young children. The WHO says no more than 1 hour at age 2, and the U.S. Surgeon General's 2026 advisory suggests less than 1 hour per day under 6 and 2 hours per day from 6 to 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics' January 2026 policy makes limits optional, from under 1 hour a day for preschoolers to 1 to 2 hours or more for older children.
Do made-for-kids videos get less engagement?
In likes and comments, yes. Counting each channel once, made-for-kids regular videos from the most-subscribed channels drew 1.5 likes per 1,000 views in October 2026, against 7.6 for other regular videos, and comments are switched off on them. Yet made-for-kids uploads, 806 of 5,799 posts, drew 15.3% of all views.
Do child influencers have to be paid?
In at least six U.S. states, part of the earnings must be set aside. Illinois, from July 1, 2024, counts a child under 16 as working when at least 30% of a family creator's paid video content in 30 days features them, and requires a trust share. Minnesota bars children under 14 from paid content creation from July 1, 2025, and a featured child is owed 100 percent of the pay for that content. This is a summary, not legal advice.
