New Aura Report Finds Kids Are Choosing Scrolling and Streaming Over Toys as Summer Break Shifts Online

As bikes and backyards give way to feeds and notifications, more than half of parents say scrolling has replaced hobbies their child once loved, with summer screen time surging 30%

BOSTON, June 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The classic childhood summer experience is changing. Today, 75% of kids ages 7–11 say they'd rather watch videos than play with toys, according to State of the Youth: To Infinity… and Autoplay, a new report from Aura — a leading AI-powered online safety platform for individuals and families.

The report examines how screens are reshaping kids' summers, finding that as school lets out, screen habits intensify: kids spend more time online, stay up later on devices and increasingly engage with feeds designed to keep them watching. Aura found that as screen time rises over the summer, digital wellbeing declines, with 1 in 3 children ages 8–17 falling into "low" digital wellbeing linked to changes in mood, stress and sleep.

The findings combine real-world device data and behavioral analysis from Aura Parents — Aura's app for monitoring children's digital safety and wellbeing — with a Talker Research survey of 2,000 U.S. parents and their internet-connected children ages 7–11. Together, they point to a childhood increasingly shaped by autoplay, infinite scroll, and AI-powered digital companionship — even as many kids still say they want to spend summer outside with friends.

Every Day Becomes Saturday
According to Aura device data, younger kids (7–12) log more than four extra hours of screen time per week during the summer, nearly a 30% increase compared to fall. Teens (13–17) add nearly three hours weekly, up 15% from the school year.

Throughout the summer, screen habits become more concentrated, stretch later into the day and lose the weekday rhythm of the school year — with every day starting to look like Saturday.

Summer device habits show:

• Approximately 70% of teens are on their devices by mid-afternoon.
• More than 1 in 10 kids ages 7–17 are still active on devices at midnight.
• Nighttime messaging activity more than doubles across age groups compared to the school year.

Screen time is also increasingly concentrated across a handful of highly immersive platforms. For younger kids, YouTube and Roblox account for roughly 86% of total time spent across top apps during the summer, with Roblox drawing more than 4x the usage of TikTok. For teens, more than half of all screen time is spent on social media.

Designed to Keep Kids Watching
According to kids (7–11) and parents surveyed by Aura, features like infinite scroll and autoplay are removing natural stopping points and making it harder for kids to disengage once they start watching.

• 63% of parents say infinite scroll makes it harder to set boundaries around screen time.
• 47% of kids say a video they didn't choose started playing automatically and made them feel worried or confused.
• 57% say they kept watching anyway, even when it made them feel "yucky."

The findings also point to broader shifts in childhood habits and attention:

• 57% of parents say scrolling has replaced hobbies their child once loved, like reading or drawing.
  
• 71% say their child can't make it through a 90-minute movie without reaching for a second screen.
  
• 61% of kids ages say it's easier to get bored without a screen.

When Screens Start Talking Back
The report also highlights how AI-powered experiences are changing the role screens play in kids' lives.

• Nearly half (45%) of kids say talking to a digital companion, like an AI chatbot or device, feels like talking to a friend or character.
  
• About 1 in 3 parents say their child either doesn't fully understand AI, sees it as part human or believes it is human-like or real.
  
• Nearly half of parents (46%) say their child sometimes believes AI has thoughts or feelings.

Kids Still Want Bikes and Backyards
Even as childhood shifts online, kids still want many of the same offline experiences previous generations grew up with.

• More than half of kids say too much screen time isn't good for them.
  
• More kids say they are most excited about spending time with friends (36%) or going outside (24%) this summer than using a tablet (20%).
  
• 60% of parents say their child would stay outside longer with simple offline options.

To help kids and parents alike break free from screens and embrace a more analog summer, Aura Parents has partnered with Common Sense Media on a series of practical resources designed to make offline summer activities easier to adopt and more appealing for kids. Launching throughout the summer, these resources include a free "90s Summer" quiz debuting June 12 that gives parents screen-free summer ideas tailored to the kinds of activities their kids enjoy on screens; an 8-week Parent Summer Survival Guide launching June 14; and a free webinar on June 17 to help caregivers better understand and manage children's screen use during the summer months.

For a closer look at how children are spending their time this summer — and how families can better navigate their digital habits — read the full report. Families can also find tips, resources, and support at aura.com/parents.

About Aura:

Aura is an award-winning online safety solution for individuals and families. Whether you're protecting yourself, your kids, or your aging loved ones, Aura meets your needs at every stage of life. From real-time threat detection and scam alerts to tools that help parents protect their kids from predators, cyberbullying, and tech-driven mental health risks, Aura empowers families to thrive in the digital world. Learn more at aura.com.

Methodology

Data for this report derives from three primary sources. The first is Aura's commercial data from 29,868 children aged 7–17, representing more than 1,584,665 days of activity from summer (6/16–8/8/2025) relative to fall (9/15–11/7/2025), respectively. Data was analyzed to examine device and platform engagement for children of different age groups (younger=7–12; older=13–17) over the different seasons. The second source is Aura's Digital Wellbeing Index (DWI), a composite score examining 17 dimensions of digital life, anchored in real-world evidence stemming from Aura's TECHWISE study that aggregates sleep health, self-regulation, and engagement quality to derive a score that best predicts psychological well-being and digital stress. The third source comes from Talker Research findings, surveying 2,000 American parents of kids aged 7–11 and their kids ages 7–11, who have access to the internet; the survey was commissioned by Aura and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Apr 28, 2026, and May 1, 2026. Visit the Talker Research Process and Methodology and read the full questionnaire.

SOURCE Aura