Some of the findings from the largest-ever global study undertaken by MTV and Nickelodeon, in association with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, into how kids and young people interact with digital technology provide an interesting insight.

The average Chinese young person has 37 online friends he or she has never met, Indian youth are most likely to see mobile phones as a status symbol, whilst one in three UK and US teenagers say they can’t live without their games console.

Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile, 78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 people in their social networking community. Yet despite their technological immersion, digi-kids are not geeks - 59% of 8-14 year-old kids still prefer their TV to their PCs and only 20% of 14-24 year-old young people globally admitted to being ‘interested’ in technology. They are, however, expert multi-taskers and able to filter different channels of information.

The Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground technology and lifestyle study challenges traditional assumptions about their relationships with digital technology, and examines the impact of culture, age and gender on technology use.

Alex Okosi, Managing Director and Senior Vice President, MTV Networks Africa, commented: “Digital technology is impacting every aspect of content creation across MTV’s brands globally. Our groundbreaking report highlights our commitment to engaging with kids and young people around the world, and helps us build stronger and more innovative alliances with business partners across our 137 TV channels and 260 web and mobile services. We’re delighted to have joined forces with Microsoft on this major project.”

“Digital communications – from IM, SMS, social networking to email – have all revolutionised how young people communicate with their peers. We wanted to understand more deeply how young people interact with these technologies and consequently what this means for our advertising partners focused on reaching this highly engaged and influential audience. Working with MTV Networks globally on this study enabled us to do so,” said Chris Dobson, Vice President, Global Advertising Sales, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground used both qualitative and quantitative methodology to talk to 18,000 “tech embracing” kids (8-14) and young people (14-24) in 16 countries: UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. MTV Networks and Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions studied 21 technologies that impact on the lives of young people: internet, email, PC, TV, mobile, IM, cable and sat TV, DVD, MP3, stereo/hi-fi, digital cameras, social networks, on and offline video games, CDs, HD TV, VHS, webcams, MP4 players, DVR/PVRs, and hand-held games consoles.

The report found:

• Technology has enabled young people to have more and closer friendships thanks to constant connectivity.
• Friends influence each other as much as marketers do. Friends are as important as brands.
• Kids and young people don’t love the technology itself – they just love how it enables them to communicate all the time, express themselves and be entertained.
• Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and mobile/sms are complementary to, not competitive with, TV. TV is part of young peoples’ digital conversation.
• Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.
• Globally, the number of friends that young males have more than doubles between the ages of 13-14 and 14-17 – it jumps from 24 to 69.
• The age group and gender that claims the largest number of friends are not girls aged 14-17, but boys aged 18-21, who have on average 70 friends.

National differences

The study found that whilst many young people have access to similar digital technologies, they use them in very different ways. “The way each technology is adopted and adapted throughout the world depends as much on local cultural and social factors as on the technology itself,” said Andrew Davidson, Vice President of VBS International Insight, MTV Networks International. “Anyone wanting to understand kids and youth has to understand how and why they differ.”

For example, Japan’s reputation as a land in love with technology is different from the reality. Japanese young people live in small homes with limited privacy, generally don’t have their own PC until they go to college and socialise away from home a lot. As a result their key digital device is the mobile phone because it offers privacy and portability.

Unlike young people in other countries, Japanese kids and young people have few online friends. Japanese kids aged 8-14 have only one online friend they haven’t met, compared to a global average of 5, whilst Japanese teenagers have only seven online friends they haven’t met - compared to a global average of 20. Japanese teens also used IM and email the least out of the 16 countries surveyed.

China has lower mobile usage amongst young people, a less evolved print media market and a family life of no siblings with parents and multiple grandparents. As a result the internet provides a rare opportunity for only - and lonely - children to reach out and communicate using social networks, blogs and instant messaging. In stark contrast to their Japanese peers, 93% of Chinese respondents 8-14 have more than one friend online they have never met face to face. “Chinese kids are living in an utterly changed world compared to their parents, and they would rather find advice and support through their peers online than through their families,” said Davidson. Davidson said that amongst 8-14s globally, only in China was TV not the No. 1 choice. “This is encouraging 8-14 in China to select online over TV - a trend not witnessed in any other market,” he said.

Climate impacts on digital technology too. In countries with a strong outdoor culture, such as Italy, Brazil and Australia, young people use mobiles for arranging to meet, flirt and take pictures of their friends.

Northern Europeans take a practical approach to technology, but are perhaps the most immersed in it of all. Out of all nationalities surveyed, young Danes are most likely to say they can’t live without mobiles (80%) or TVs (75%), and young Dutch most likely to say they can’t live without e-mail (85%).

Despite the plethora of new communicating tools, a majority in almost every nation expressed a preference for meeting in person, although Japanese, Chinese, Poles and Germans scored higher than others when it came to wanting to communicate online. Only Chinese youth actually expressed a majority preference for texting over face-to-face meetings.

More and closer friendships

Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground found that technology’s greatest impact has been on the depth and range of friends that 14-24s have. From having an average 11 friends between the ages of 8-14, young people speedily acquire circles of dozens of friends in their teenage years. The average 14-24 has an average of 53 online and face-to-face friends - and communicate with them often. “There is a critical difference in mobile phone usage between kids and teenagers. For 8-14s, the mobile phone is a toy that you can talk to parents and close friends on. From 14 onwards the mobile phone quickly becomes a means of communication and self-expression,” said Davidson.

Many of the 14-24s surveyed said that the different forms of communication enabled them to talk about more intimate subjects than they would have otherwise done. Over half said that they could talk about more things on IM than face-to-face, 53% said that they could get to know people better, whilst around 4 out of every ten said that they found it easier to make new friends and felt less lonely as a result of using the Internet. “Friends play an expanded role in the lives of young people. When they come home from school, college or work, socialising does not stop as it used to, it just goes online. Kids and young people are now connected constantly,” said MTV Network’s Davidson.

On average, 14-24s said they had 20 online friends, with Brazilians claiming the most – 46. Communicating with their friends is a priority. Nearly 70% said the first thing they did after turning on their computer was to check IM. Out of all young people surveyed, 14-17 girls spend the least time online - 21 hours per week – whilst 22-24 males spent the most time online - 31 hours a week online. 100% of those surveyed said they communicate every time they go online.

“The power of online communication tools, like instant messenger and social networking sites, enables young people to communicate both privately and with multiple friends. Features in IM, like winks and emoticons, add to the fun of chatting and allow them to express themselves more deeply,” said Caroline Vogt, Head of International Research, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

Safety and parental control

Safety and parental oversight ranks high on the uses technology serves with the younger demographics. 68% of 8-14 respondents said they felt safer having their mobile phones with them outside the home - rising to 81% in the UK - and 71% said their parents use the phone to find out where they are. “In Mexico especially, parents purchase mobiles for their children as an essential safety item,” said Davidson.

When parents aren’t around, 8-14s are more likely to communicate with friends, participate in chat forums and use the internet for entertainment. German kids aged 8-14 use the internet the least of all countries studied and were also the least likely to view it positively – only 25% of German kids said they loved the internet – compared to 73% of Dutch kids. The behaviour is likely to be linked the high degree of parental supervision of German kids on the internet.

With social networking becoming a frequent online activity for over half of youth, 35% are claiming they now use these sites because all their friends are on them. This helps to explain the phenomenal rise of social networking – their popularity is based on collective usage. In the UK, one of the strongest reasons for using social networks is to keep youths from feeling left out. “Parents should take comfort from these findings. Kids and youths prefer to connect with their friendship groups and, at most, extend out to people with similar interests. The perception amongst young people is that it’s their parents who are more likely to use digital networks for online dating or meeting strangers!” said Vogt.