Irish kids spend 143 hours of their summer holidays staring at a screen

'Tis the season - but far from spending the summer frockling around fields and riding a bicycle (OK, that's a bit twee...) Irish kids are now more likely to be hooked up to an electronic device.

Yes, one worrying study has revealed that the average Irish child will spend a massive 143 hours and 36 minutes of their summer holidays from school sitting in front of a screen. Indeed, Ireland’s youth are more likely to spend their spare time indoors than out playing with their friends, using their break from school to play videogames, watch television, and mess around on the internet. In total, the average kid is likely to spend 12 days straight in front of some kind of screen: television, phone, computer, or tablet. These figures were previously published in the Irish Daily Star and the study was carried out by Galt Toys. It included some 2,000 parents and also found that one in every eight children now has their own iPad. Six in ten parents admitted that they regularly put their child in front of the television or a games console on rainy days simply because it makes their own lives easier.