Kids are hooked on the internet but they could be learning online habits from their parents.

Global research shows one in six 15-year-olds in New Zealand are "extreme" internet users spending six hours a day online - while most spend around three hours day.

It makes New Zealand's youth the seventh-highest internet consumers in the OECD.

Internet safety and risk assessment consultant John Parsons said children need to balance computer time with exercise.

"If you've got a teenager spending six hours a day on technology but not moving, not interacting with face-to-face conversations, not perhaps playing sport, then I think you have an issue."

But he told Mike Hosking adults are also part of the problem.

"Why don't the researchers look at adults? We think of it as a youth issue. I'm affected by technology just as much as young people. I love using it, I'm always connected and I'm always on it."

LISTEN ABOVE AS JOHN PARSONS SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING