Canberra, March 16 (IANS): Over two-thirds of Australian children aged three to 17 own a smartphone and spend almost an entire day of the week on the device, a new report revealed on Monday.

The report released by national communication carrier Telstra discovered that children spend an average of 21 hours and 48 minutes per week on a smartphone, Xinhua news agency reported.

The online survey of 1,365 parents said that their top concerns involved risks around cyber safety and sexting.

Two-thirds of the parents said they had talked with their children about usage, but 25 percent said their children did not comply with their promise of limiting their time on smartphones.

According to the report, the average age of ownership is 12 years but 10-year-olds spend an average of 14.7 hours on their phones and 17-year-olds spend an average of 26.3 hours on their phones.

Parents said that Facebook and instant messaging were the most time consuming and distracting programmes for their children.