Kids Online - Where are the 10-Year Olds?

Youtube, TikTok and other platforms for kids, tweens, and teens

For the last ten years, kids have been Youtube fans. Unwrapping Legos, building legos, cartoons, educational videos, and more—they are watched by kids. But a 2022 study from London based KidsKnowBest says this is changing.

Where Do Kids Spend Time Online - And Why Does it Matter?

The most popular streaming service is Netflix, followed by Disney+. However, this could change if Netflix adds advertising, with up to 25% of families surveyed saying that they would leave. A price increase could jeopardize up to 80% of the subscribers.

Behind the streaming services, kids use Youtube. At least they use it up to about age 10. That’s when kids start switching to TikTok.

Book authors have known that we compete with screens for kid’s time, passion, and the family buying potential. The report says that kids in the US are watching 13.5 hours of screens in 2022, down an hour from 2021. The UK numbers are similar with 11.5 hours, down from 13 in 2021.

From a marketing standpoint, this is valuable information. The middle grade audience, ages 10-14, are going to be on TikTok. Youtube will reach kids ages 2-10, and their parents. Now both platforms, Youtube and Tiktok, are competitive. To market there is hard and I’ve seen few people succeed with this. But it’s clear that we need to do better to find and interact with our audience in the coming decade. Maybe it’s time to take a class in video editing!

Popular Shows

It’s interesting that in both the UK and US, Stranger Things is the most popular series for 12-16 year old. It’s also interesting that the survey asks about series. Indie authors know the value of a series in pulling in readers and keeping them reading. Apparently, this is also important with video.

Competing with Screens

Yes! We compete with screens! Some people say that kids don’t read ebooks, preferring paper instead. Nonsense. In 2020, the EPIC! app, which is used in 90% of US schools reported 50 million readers with over 1 Billion reads. One billion! Notice, though, that kids are reading books! With EPIC!, kids choose from over 40,000 books: great picture books, informational books, joke books, chapter books and some short novels.

The report continues:

Now, more than one million teachers use Epic to assign, track and curate reading. It’s not just volume either. The company says that in 2020, individual reading time, the amount spent per student per book is up 60%.

EPIC!’s sweet spot is ages 5-8, which is why I find it fascinating that kids are moving to TikTok at about age 10. They’ve exhausted EPIC! as a reading app. I wonder if they are moving to Kindle or iBooks or other ebook readers? Or are they moving to watching videos instead of reading on screens? Do we need a dedicated Tweens and Teens reading app such as EPIC!?