Children in the new media age 新媒体时代的儿童

Children used to spend hours daily in front of TV to get entertainment.

媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

电视长期以来在儿童娱乐形式中一直占最重要的地位。可是根据一项新的调查，至少在英国，孩子们正在花更多的时间上网和发短信。请听BBC科技事务记者Mark Gregory发回的报道:

The television set in the living room used to rule the entertainment choices of generations of British children. But that's no longer the case, at least not according to the latest annual survey of young people's media habits, carried out by the British media regulator, Ofcom.

The survey found that 12 to 15 year-olds spent equal amounts of time watching TV and going online - 17 hours a week on average for each medium. And asked which media device they most valued, teenagers rated their mobile phone above the family TV set. Smartphone ownership among teenagers was found to have doubled in just 12 months.

The survey paints a picture of an increasingly tech-savvy younger generation, with even very young children confident about, and familiar with, a wide variety of digital devices. The survey says the take up of digital technologies is faster among teenagers than the general population.

It also comments on the popularity of text messaging, especially among girls. Teenage girls typically send thirty or more text messages a day, 35 per cent more than boys do. Ofcom says the findings highlight the challenges parents face in keeping up with children's use of technology in order to protect them.