A new survey detailing daily media use among children and teens in America has found that a big increase in mobile media usage over the last five years has helped drive a general spike of consumption.

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds from the Kaiser Foundation revealed that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). Because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), the 8-18 year olds pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

The amount of time spent with media increased by an hour and seventeen minutes a day over the past five years, from 6:21 in 2004 to 7:38 today. And because of media multitasking, the total amount of media content consumed during that period has increased from 8:33 in 2004 to 10:45 today.

The survey revealed that the increase in media use is driven in large part by ready access to mobile devices such as mobile phones and iPods. Over the past five years, the re has been a huge increase in mobile device ownership among 8- to 18-year-olds: from 39% to 66% for mobile phones, and from 18% to 76% for iPods and other MP3 players.

During this period, says the study, mobile phones and iPods have become true multi-media devices. In what may be a tipping point for mobile services, the survey showed that young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their mobile phones (a total of 49 minutes daily) than they spend talking on them (33 daily).

Another key conclusion drawn from the data is that the mobile phone has cemented its place as a media delivery platform for young people. In a typical day, 8- to 18-year-olds spend an average of 49 minutes listening to music (17 minutes), playing games (17 minutes) or watching TV (15 minutes) on a cell phone.

Kaiser makes note of the fact that this is an average for all 8- to 18-year-olds, including the youngest children, and all of those who don't even own a mobile phone. Among the older teens, where these activities are concentrated, the average for a typical day is more than an hour (1:06) of mobile phone-based media consumption with 23 minute spent on music, 22 minutes on games and 23 minutes for TV.

For the first time over the course of Kaiser's study, the amount of time spent watching regularly-scheduled TV declined, by 25 minutes a day (from 2004 to 2009). But the many new ways to watch TV- such as from the Internet, mobile phones, and iPods - drove an increase in total TV consumption from 3:51 hours to 4:29 hours per day., including 16 minutes on iPods and other MP3 players, and 15 minutes on mobile phones. All told, only 59% (2:39) of young people's TV-viewing consisted of live TV on a TV set, with the remainder from time-shifted, DVDs, online, or mobile.

"The bottom line is that all these advances in media technologies are making it even easier for young people to spend more and more time with media," said Victoria Rideout, Foundation Vice President and director of the study. "It's more important than ever that researchers, policymakers and parents stay on top of the impact it's having on their lives."