OLDER children watch half the amount of live television per day as adults - but are topping this up by watching content online, a study has found.

Ofcom's Children's Digital Day research found that older children aged 11 to 15 are watching one hour and 32 minutes of live television a day, while adults watch two hours and 58 minutes.

But this age group of children is spending six times longer than adults watching short online video clips on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, at 33 minutes compared with five minutes.

The study also found that nearly all UK adults reported watching live television every day over the course of a week (94 per cent), compared with 78 per cent of children aged 11 to 15 and 90 per cent of those six to 11.

Adults listened to five times more radio each day than children in the study.

Adults are also more than three times more likely than older children to talk on the phone each week (83 per cent to 25 per cent), and spend six times longer talking on the phone, at 29 minutes a day versus five minutes.