What Today’s Kids Are Up To, According to Their Parents
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Welcome to Morning Consult’s From A to Gen Z newsletter. We put the headlines you’re reading about Gen Alpha, Gen Z and millennials into context with our high-frequency survey data to help you better understand exactly how and why they’re spending their time — and their dollars.
Today, we’re exploring a simple question with big implications: What are kids doing in 2025?
The data we’ll use to answer it comes from a recent Morning Consult report: Modern Parenting: Today’s Practices and Priorities. We surveyed parents with children under 18 about their attitudes, behaviors and family experiences.
⚾🏀 Sports are shaping childhood ⚾🏀
When parents were asked what activity their child is currently involved in, basketball (30%), football (28%) and soccer (27%) topped the list, beating out other activities like music lessons.
Notably, “none of the above” didn’t fall far behind, but that’s not because kids aren’t involved in all types of extracurricular activities. Instead, this share is boosted by parents of young children, ages 0-4, who are too tiny to put on cleats or catch a ball.
Activity choices do vary some by age. Parents of children 10 and up are most likely to say their children are involved in basketball, while parents of children ages 5-9 say soccer. Regardless, with athletics gaining popularity across every corner of American culture, it’s more likely than ever that today’s kids will carry a sporty sensibility with them as they get older.
Zooming out, raising a “mini-me” is quite common: Nearly three-fourths (73%) of parents say their children are involved in the same activities they were as a child.
▶️ Check out our report on modern parenting in its entirety here.
📺🏅 For many kids, screentime is a reward 📺🏅
If sports are a childhood staple, screens are even more so: Over 3 in 4 parents said they “often” or “sometimes” allow their children to get screentime as a reward for good behavior.
But lots of screentime doesn’t mean kids are watching whatever they want. About half of parents say they have “complete control” over their children’s screentime (48%) and what type of content they consume (48%), and nearly all parents (93%) say they have at least some control.
When parents are picking, it’s most likely that educational TV or movies are on their children’s screens. Roughly half (52%) of parents said they allow their children to watch this type of content “as often as they want,” the highest of any content type surveyed.
▶️ To learn more about the data that powers this research, reach out to your Morning Consult contact or email [email protected].
🧑💻🧒Artificial adolescence? 🧑💻🧒
AI use is increasingly common, even among children. Nearly 2 in 5 parents (37%) say their kids use generative artificial intelligence, and this share jumps to almost half (48%) for parents with children ages 15-17.
ChatGPT (72%) is the most popular AI platform of choice, but plenty of others are popular with kids too including Google’s Gemini (45%) and Meta AI (42%).
The most common reason kids turn to AI is to use it as a search tool, followed by simply having fun. Still, many are using it for schoolwork too, a use case that is even more common among teenagers.
▶️ Check out our full archive of research and analysis on parents and children.
What Else We’re Reading
- Social Media Is an Integral Part of Work for Gen Z (Morning Consult)
- From sauna socials to run clubs: Are community event leaders the new influencers? (Vogue Business)
- More college students now learn entirely online than completely in-person (NPR)
- AI Dating App Features Aren’t Landing With Gen Z, New Survey Finds (Bloomberg)
Upcoming
July 29 — Memo: Americans Can’t Look Away From AI Summaries. This analysis explores how consumers are interacting with the AI-generated summaries that are now commonplace on most online search engines. Once it’s published, you’ll be able to find it here.
August 6 — Report: The State of Social Life. Our latest report details what brands need to know about how Americans are spending their leisure time, who they’re spending it with and why. You can check it out on the MC Pro homepage when it goes live.
Ellyn Briggs is a brands analyst on the Industry Intelligence team, where she conducts research, authors analyst notes and advises brand and marketing leaders on how to apply insights to make better business decisions. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Ellyn worked as a market researcher and brand strategist in both agency and in-house settings. She graduated from American University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected].