Children between the ages of 8 and 18 in the U.S. spend over 53 hours a week online, watching television and playing video games, according to a new study.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation study - which followed 2,000 young people - the average young American today spends more time online, in front of the television, listening to music and texting than an adult spends full-time at work in a week.

The amount of time young people spend with media has grown to where it's even more than a full-time work week, Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the foundation, said in a statement.

“Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in media use among young people,” the report says.

Kids ages 8 to 18 spend more than 7 1/2 hours a day using electronic media, or more than 53 hours a week, the 10-year study says. Ten years ago, that figure was 43 hours a week.

And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 7 hours, the study showed.

The study, which has been in the making for 10 years, last released its results in 2004 and till now, has shown a dramatic increase in time that American youth spend online or with gadgets.

In 2009, 76 percent of youths owned an iPod or MP3 player, compared with 18 percent in 1999.

All forms of media consumption are rising, except for print. The average teenager spends 38 minutes a day reading a print publication, compared to 43 minutes a day 10 years ago.

The study showed that the average 8-18 year old in the U.S. now owns:

• 3.8 televisions
• 2.8 DVD or VCR players
• 1 digital video recorder
• 2.2 CD players
• 2.5 radios
• 2 computers
• 2.3 console video game players

Ipod