A new survey published by Playful Childhoods shows that 62% of children said they would like to play more than five times a week, yet nearly one in three – with 35% of parents in agreement – said scrolling on TikTok and watching YouTube videos is stopping them from doing so.
Playing is one of the most prominent contributing factors to a child’s overall wellbeing with over 90% of parents across Wales saying playing has a positive impact on their children’s mental health, alongside 69% of children saying playing makes them feel happy or excited. Despite this, 22% of children said having no one to play with is another factor stopping them from playing altogether.
Talking about why she’d rather be playing, 13-year-old Summer Pritchard from Treherbert said ‘Playing makes me feel free. And if I didn’t have a playing to turn to, I’d just be in my room watching TikTok on my phone’.
The survey findings have been published to launch Playful Childhoods’ summer campaign – Time to Play – and to celebrate Playday. The Time to Play campaign aims to encourage and support parents and carers to inspire and motivate more chances for their children to play this summer and beyond.
Survey size: 1000 respondents in Wales – 500 parents with children under 15 and 500 children aged 5 to 15 – took part in the survey which was undertaken the week commencing 11 July 2022.
