Mashable summarizes data from a recent report (which was assembled using data from seven separate studies), taking a pulse on just how dominate a role television and increasingly the internet play in the lives of children.

From the article: “Heavy television viewing may even contribute to the rising number of children who use the Internet. Parents in one study indicated that more than 60% of children under age three watch video online. That percentage decreases as children get older (the report suggests this is because school-age children have less time at home), but even 8 to 18-year-old children reported in another study consuming about 20% of their content online, on cellphones, or on other portable devices like iPods.”

Here are some data points from the report, titled “Always Connected: The new digitial media habits of young children” (which you can download and read in full here):

• Nearly 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet on at least a weekly basis
• Of the time that children spend on all types of media, TV accounts for 47%
• 36% of children between the ages of 2 and 11 use both TV and use the Internet simultaneously
• During the week, most children spend at least 3 hours per day watching TV
• TV use among preschoolers is the highest it has been in the past 8 years