A new study by the National Literary Trust shows children find reading 'embarrassing' and are opting for video instead

Children growing up in the age of YouTube are turning away from books in increasing numbers, with a study revealing the number of children who read outside school has fallen by 25% since 2005.

According to a National Literacy Trust study of 34,910 young people, nearly a third of children between eight and 16 say they read no text-based media at all in their daily leisure time.

Only 28.4% claimed to read in their own time every day in 2012, down from 38.1% who read outside school in 2005.

For Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust, this decline "is a significant social and cultural trend which needs to be addressed".

"There's a really strong relationship between literacy – reading and writing – and social outcomes, whether it's earnings, home ownership, voting, or a sense of trust in society," he said. "If children are not practising reading, they will miss out."

This year's study confirms a trend that began to show two years ago, that reading and writing are being shunned in favour of video-based communications. "Originally we thought that children's reading was migrating from print to digital, that they were using messenger and reading ebooks. But increasingly they are consuming information in ways that do not involve reading or writing text."

Attitudes to reading have also become more negative over time, with 21.5% of young people agreeing with the statement, "I would be embarrassed if my friends saw me read," up from 16.6% in the 2010 study.

"We can all remember how crippling embarrassment is as a teenager – for young people it's one of the big, important things. A significant increase in this dynamic is worrying. Peer pressure can be so great that even when you're not in a peer group, you might continue with behaviours that you want to construct your identity. We want reading to be a part of youth culture, and not seen as something that's just for middle-aged, middle-class people."

Douglas, a former children's librarian at Westminster Libraries, also pointed to a dearth of engaging reading materials, particularly for boys. Among boys, 35% agreed with the statement that "I cannot find things to read that interest me," compared with 26% of girls. For boys on free school meals it was 39%. "Is that to do with under-investment in public libraries? Certainly part of it is about what's being published, and part is about what teachers and librarians are choosing. Are we promoting materials for boys, and boys from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular?"

When asked if they agreed with the statement that "reading is more for girls than boys", 16.2% of children agreed, up from 15.2% in 2010, with boys more likely to agree than girls.

The National Literacy Trust is asking children and adults to nominate their reading hero as part of a campaign to promote reading.