Children in the third and the fourth grade of elementary school were found to be spending more time with their smartphones than in front of the television.

According to the Korea Press Foundation's '2023 Children's Media Use Survey' report released on Tuesday, the time spent watching TV was longer than that spent using smartphones for children attending daycare centers and kindergartens and in the lower grades of elementary school, but the figures differ starting from third grade.

The average daily TV viewing time of children attending daycare centers and kindergartens was 72-point-seven minutes and 66-point-two minutes, respectively, which was longer than their smartphone use time of 53-point-7 minutes and 36-point-6 minutes respectively.

However, third graders spent 77-point-three minutes watching TV compared to 92 minutes using their smartphones, while fourth graders averaged 68-point-six minutes of TV time and 104-point-four minutes of smartphone usage.

The survey asked guardians of two-thousand-675 children aged three to nine who attend daycare centers or kindergartens nationwide or are enrolled in the first to fourth grades from October 26 to December 8 last year, with a sampling error of plus or minus two percent and at a 95 percent confidence level.