The majority of legal guardians in Germany do not impose strict time limits on their children’s smartphones and consistently monitor their social media activities. As the “Postbank Digital Study 2026” shows, many mothers and fathers no longer have a precise overview of how intensively and what their offspring spends their time in the digital world.
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For the representative study, over 3,000 people in Germany were surveyed in May, including 732 people with children in the household. The results provide a surprisingly liberal picture of everyday digital life in families: in 65 percent of households there are no time restrictions for daily cell phone use. Even in the evenings, consumption is hardly regulated – in two thirds of families there is no ban on cell phones before going to bed.
Hardly any rules for Instagram and Co.
What is striking is the parents’ relaxed attitude when it comes to their offspring’s use of social networks such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. In 57 percent of families, clear rules regarding social media use by minors are completely missing. Instead, many parents rely on their children’s personal responsibility and consciously do not control usage.
This is particularly the case with guardians aged 40 and over: 61 percent in this age group do not check their children’s content and activities online or only check them very irregularly. This is all the more explosive since, according to their parents, almost half (47 percent) of under-18s spend more than an hour a day on these social networks.
Majority for age restrictions on social media
At the same time, an overwhelming majority of 86 percent of those surveyed are in favor of age restrictions when using social media. Only 14 percent consider an age restriction to be pointless. 44 percent say that the use of social media such as TikTok, YouTube or Instagram should only be permitted from the age of 16 or older. 27 percent would allow this from the age group of 14 to 15 years. 10 percent see the threshold as being 12 to 13 years old, 3 percent in the 10 to 11 year age group.
In households without children, the issue is viewed more strictly than in families with children. 48 percent of those without children advocate an age restriction of at least 16 years when using social media. In households with children it is only 31 percent.
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Ever younger, ever more connected
The Postbank study also shows that children’s digital lives begin earlier and earlier. The majority of adolescents (54 percent) receive their first smartphone between the ages of nine and twelve. One in five children has their own device by the age of eight at the latest. There is also a clear generational difference among parents here: younger parents (under 40 years of age) tend to equip their offspring with mobile devices earlier – a quarter of them hand over their first cell phone before their ninth birthday. Only 14 percent of older parents do this.
When guidelines are given, they usually focus on physical coexistence and school obligations: For 51 percent of the parents surveyed, smartphones are taboo during meals, and one in two forbids the screen when doing homework and at school. Access to certain apps or websites is also prohibited in around half of families.
But it is precisely outside their own four walls that parents reach their limits. Since they can hardly enforce their own rules there, the call for institutions is getting louder: an overwhelming majority of 82 percent of parents (and 83 percent of Germans overall) support a ban on cell phones in schools. The main reason given by 51 percent is that the devices simply disrupt lessons and the students’ concentration.
3,050 residents were surveyed for the study (PDF) in May of this year. This includes 732 respondents with children in the household. In order to represent a population-representative structure, the sample was weighted according to federal state (proportionalization), age and gender. The 2022 census from the Federal Statistical Office was used as a reference file. The results are rounded to whole numbers. Deviations in the totals can be explained by rounding differences.
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