TV for three to four hours a day

TV and multimedia: Young people spend an average of three hours a day watching television, with 27 per cent spending four hours…

TV and multimedia: Young people spend an average of three hours a day watching television, with 27 per cent spending four hours or more doing so.

Almost all own mobile phones, while two-thirds have Internet access, although the better off are much more likely to than the less well off.

Television is watched for longer each day by the less well off, 15- to 17-year-olds and young people in Munster, the poll shows.

Those in the C2DE social category watch it for an average of three hours and 20 minutes per day, while those in the better-off ABC1 category watch for an average of two hours and 45 minutes.

READ MORE

This may partly reflect higher Internet access among the better off.

The 15- to 17-year-olds average at three hours and a quarter, the 18- to 19-year-olds two and three-quarter hours and the 20- to 24-year-olds three hours.

The average in Munster is almost three hours and 25 minutes, in Dublin and Connacht-Ulster almost exactly three hours and in Leinster excluding Dublin just under three hours.

Mobile phones are owned by 91 per cent of young people including 93 per cent of Dubliners and women and 95 per cent of those from better-off families

Among the youngest 15- to 17-year-old category 89 per cent own mobile phones, with ownership rising to 93 per cent of those aged 23 and 24.

While 95 per cent of the ABC1 group owns a mobile, 89 per cent of the C2DE group does and 8 per cent of those with farming backgrounds does.

Ownership is evenly spread around the State, with 89 per cent in Connacht-Ulster, 91 per cent in Munster and Leinster excluding Dublin and 93 per cent in Dublin owning one.

Some 63 per cent have access to the Internet while 37 per cent do not. There is a stark class difference, with 77 per cent of ABC1s having web access, and just 53 per cent of C2DEs having it. Some 61 per cent of those from farming backgrounds have Internet access.

The Internet access rate among young people in Dublin is 71 per cent compared to 62 per cent in the rest of Leinster, 59 per cent in Connacht-Ulster and 58 per cent in Munster.

Access in urban areas is at 66 per cent and in rural areas 58 per cent.

Of those with web access 81 per cent use it for e-mail, 24 per cent access chat rooms, 20 per cent newspaper web sites, 5 per cent none of these and 4 per cent did not say.