4 hours and 25 minutes. That is how much time the average Polish child aged 7–14 spends online daily. It is more than teenagers, more than adults, and more than anyone else in this country.

On June 15, the "Children's Internet 2026" report was presented in the Sejm. This is not just another survey where parents claim they "have everything under control." These are data points on what children are actually doing with their phones—hour by hour, app by app. And that is exactly why it is so devastating.

Read these numbers slowly. Each one represents hundreds of thousands of individual children.

➡️ 1.2 million children aged 7–14 have encountered alcohol advertisements online. The law prohibits targeting such ads at minors. On the internet, this regulation is dead.

➡️ 32%—or about a million children—have been exposed to pornographic content. A pornographic site is the second most visited site by children on their phones. Librus is only fourth.

➡️ 55% of children aged 7–12 regularly use TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat—platforms they are formally not allowed to join before age 13. A year ago, the report's authors highlighted this issue. After a year of debates, headlines, and promises, this number… has not budged.

➡️ 43% of children have already used ChatGPT. Artificial intelligence has become a part of childhood before anyone could teach children how to use it wisely.

➡️ And educational content? 1%. One percent of the total time children spend online.

Let’s pause on that last point. Because this is not a story about "bad phones." It is a story about architecture—the system we live in. It is about the infinite scroll, autoplay, notifications, and algorithms designed by the world's best engineers to capture a child's attention and never let go. A child stands no chance against this. Often, neither do we adults.

And here, the report makes a point that should stop anyone hoping for simple solutions: banning phones in schools will only reduce children's online activity by a small percentage. This is because school hours account for only 13% of screen time. The rest happens in the morning before school, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at night. A ban without education and a real alternative is just a bandage on a much deeper wound.

That is why we are not putting this problem off until "someday, when someone passes a law."

As the Enabler Foundation, we are currently running a project in primary schools in Reda that addresses exactly this. It is not about fear-mongering or taking phones away. It is about something much harder and more important: helping children understand what happens to them when they hold a phone. So they know the infinite scroll is not an accident. That the ad that just appeared did not end up there "by chance." That they can say "enough"—because they understand who wants them to never say it.

Every lesson in Reda means one less child left alone with a machine designed to outsmart them. And although the report shows a scale that might seem hopeless, we see something else—we see that education works, that children are smarter than algorithms assume, and that they only need the right tools to start looking at their screens differently.

These numbers are not a verdict. They are a call to action.

📌 If you are a parent, talk to your child today. Not about bans, but about how the things they use actually work.
📌 If you are reading this and thought "this is important," share it. Seriously. One share means more parents will see these numbers before their children do.

Our children spend more time online than any of us. The question is: who will teach them—us or the algorithm?