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A Summer Online: Aura's Latest State of the Youth Report
Summer is the season when kids' digital wellbeing slips the most. About 1 in 3 children ages 8 to 17 fall into the low range of Aura's Digital Wellbeing Index between June and August, a score linked to worse sleep and higher stress.
It's also when Aura sees the heaviest screen time. Weekdays start to look like Saturdays. A handful of apps take up most of the day, and phone use carries past bedtime. Parents see autoplay and infinite scroll keeping kids in front of the screen longer than either side wants, and kids notice it too. Our survey also found that 75% of kids ages 7–11 say they’d rather watch videos than play with toys.
This is the second 2026 State of the Youth release from Aura. Part 1 introduced the Digital Wellbeing Index, which looks at kids' phone use beyond raw hours.
Methodology
This report is based on three data sources.
- Aura commercial data. Aura looked at 1.58 million days of device activity from 29,868 children ages 7 to 17. The data spans summer (June 16 to August 8, 2025) and the school year (September 15 to November 7, 2025). Children were grouped into two age cohorts (younger: 7 to 12; older: 13 to 17) to compare device and platform engagement by season.
- Digital Wellbeing Index (DWI). The Digital Wellbeing Index is a 0–100 composite score derived from 17 dimensions of digital behavior, including sleep health, self-regulation, and engagement quality. The Index builds on findings from Aura's TECHWISE study, which connects device data to measures of stress and overall wellbeing.
- National parent-child survey. Aura commissioned Talker Research to field an online survey of 2,000 U.S. parents of children ages 7 to 11 and their children. The survey was fielded between April 28 and May 1, 2026. The full questionnaire and methodology are available through Talker Research as part of AAPOR's Transparency Initiative.
When school ends, screens fill the space
With school out, the open hours fill with screen time. In Aura's device data:
- Weekly device time climbs in both age cohorts. Younger kids (7 to 12) add more than four hours a week, nearly 30% more than during the school year. Teens (13 to 17) add nearly three hours, up about 15%.
- By mid-afternoon, about 70% of teens are on a device.
- More than 1 in 10 kids ages 7 to 17 are still on a device at midnight, and nighttime messaging more than doubles compared to the school year.
In Aura's Digital Wellbeing Index, late-night phone use is one of the strongest markers of lower wellbeing scores. Kids who score low spend about three times more time on devices at night.
The apps where kids spend the most time depend on age
- For younger children (7 to 12), YouTube and Roblox alone account for 86% of the time spent across their top five apps. Roblox draws more than four times the time TikTok does in this group.
- For teens (13 to 17), social media accounts for more than half of all summer device time. Among younger kids, it barely shows up in the top five.
According to Aura's 2025 State of the Youth Report, teens who spend more time on social media report higher digital stress.
The Digital Stress Test gives families a way to check in on that pressure together. It walks through the kinds of digital stress that often go unsaid at home, like the fear of missing out or the constant push to respond.
Putting devices down is harder than it looks
Devices are designed to keep kids on. Autoplay and infinite scroll keep the next thing coming, and stopping takes effort for parents and kids both:
- 63% of parents say infinite scroll makes setting boundaries harder. 41% find themselves calling out or stepping in to get a child to stop.
- 47% of kids ages 7 to 11 say they've had a device start playing a video they didn't pick that made them feel worried or confused. More than half of those kids kept watching anyway.
Now AI is part of what's keeping kids on devices. Nearly half of kids ages 7 to 11 say talking to a digital companion feels like talking to a character or a friend. That friend-like feeling is also what makes companion chats the riskiest kind of AI for kids.
Kids still want the offline part of summer
Most kids haven't stopped wanting what summer used to be. When asked what they look forward to most, 36% picked time with friends and 24% picked going outside. Only 20% picked their tablet. More than half (52%) recognize that too much screen time isn't good for them.
Parents see it too. 60% say their child would stay outside longer if given simple offline options. The wanting is on both sides. Putting devices down takes more than intention.
The full findings will be available beginning June 4, in Aura’s State of the Youth 2026: Summer Screen Time (PDF) →
Related Resources
Aura’s 2026 State of the Youth Report: The Digital Wellbeing Index
Aura Releases New 2025 State of the Youth Report
Kids and AI: Aura Finds Kids Turning to AI in Disturbing Ways
Are AI Chatbots Safe for Kids?
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