Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

40% of Teens Video Chat With Friends

More teens are using video chats to interact and communicate with friends, thanks in part to the adoption growth of apps such as Skype, Googletalk and iChat, according to a new study.

A report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that about 37% of Internet users ages 12 to 17 participate in video chats. Not surprisingly, 42% of girls — who tend to be more active on social networking sites — are more likely to web chat with others compared to boys (33%).

Teens of various ages are equally likely to use web chat services. About 34% of online 12 to 13 year olds use video chat, while 39% of 14 to 17 year olds do the same. Teens who are more active online, text frequently and use social media often are, not surprisingly, more likely to video chat.

About 77% of all teens between the ages of 12 and 17 use Facebook, while just 16% use Twitter. Teens who use Facebook and Twitter are more likely to use video chat, with 41% of Facebook users web chatting (compared with 25% of non-users) and 60% of Twitter users using video chat, compared with 33% of non-Twitter users.

The study also found that 77% of all teens have cell phones, 75% of which can send and receive texts.

Source: Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/05/03/teens-video-chat/

Study: Teens Prefer Texting to Phone Calls

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, teens will be flummoxed when it comes to how to make a phone call. That's because there's more texting going on than ever, while voice calling continues to decline, says a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

Three-quarters of teens use text messaging, Pew says (it's a little surprising the figure isn't higher), and the "volume of texting among teens has risen from 50 texts a day in 2009 to 60 texts for the median teen text user" in 2011, said Pew in "Teens, Smartphones and Texting," which looks at changes in teens' communication habits over the last five years, with a focus on mobile devices.

Pew reports: "Much of this increase occurred among older teens ages 14-17, who went from a median of 60 texts a day to a median of 100 two years later. Boys of all ages also increased their texting volume from a median of 30 texts daily in 2009 to 50 texts in 2011. Black teens showed an increase of a median of 60 texts per day to 80."

While 63 percent of teens say they exchange text messages every day, only 39 percent actually use their phones for voice calling. Only 14 percent of all teens say they talk daily with friends on a landline, down from 30 percent who said so in 2009.  Nearly a third (31 percent) of teens say they never talk on a landline with friends (or report that they cannot do so).

Source: MSNBC
http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/teens-texting-voice-calling-down-report-484645

One in Five UK Parents Use Gadgets as In-Home Intercom with Kids

In another sign of how technology can foster more communication, a new survey in Britain found that one in five parents use tech gadgets to talk to their own children while inside the same home.

Supermarket chain Asda recently conducted a nationwide survey and found parents were increasingly using technology as a form of in-home intercom with their kids, calling them to dinner or telling them to do their chores.

The most popular channel for this in-home communication was text messaging, which accounted for 55 percent of interactions. Facebook followed with 20 percent, and mobile phone calls trailed with 13 percent. For parents, the most popular message was “Dinner’s ready,” which accounted for 13 percent of messages on all mediums. Parents also frequently sent messages such as “clean your room” and “do your homework.”

“The fact is that technology puts us in touch with more people more often than ever before – and this is as true at home as it is when we’re out and about. Communicating with teens, for example, has never been the easiest thing for parents, and now low-cost gadgets are giving us a hotline to their rooms,” said Asda’s technology expert Nathan Mills.

Source: Gigaom
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/12/one-in-five-parents-use-gadgets-as-in-home-intercom-with-kids/

Parent-Teen Conversations About Internet Are Lacking

Comcast Corporation recently announced the findings of of its Internet safety and security survey to assess the general knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among U.S. adults and teens. One of the highlights in the independent nationwide survey revealed that although 95 percent of parents believe it is just as important to talk about online safety issues with their children as it is to talk about sex education and the risks associated with drugs and alcohol, only 65 percent have actually had that discussion.

To help parents initiate these conversations with their children as they progress through different developmental stages - teens, tweens, school-age children and preschoolers, Comcast is raising awareness about new discussion guides created by Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston. The results of the survey and the new guides come as the nation recognizes National Cyber Security Awareness month in October.

The discussion guides are available to all, at no cost at http://xfinity.comcast.net/constantguard/Education/For_Parents/The_Internet_Talk/?CID=66.

Source: MarketWatch
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/internet-conversations-lacking-between-parents-and-teens-according-to-new-comcast-online-safety-and-security-survey-2011-10-06

U.S. Teens Send 3,339 Texts Per Month

US teens are sending and receiving an average of 3,339 texts a month, relying more on SMS than voice calls, a new study has found.

According to a study conducted by research firm The Nielsen Company, an average 13 to 17 year in the US sent or received more than 6 text messages every hour they were awake, averaging 3,339 texts a month.

During the same time frame, voice calls saw a decline of 14 per cent to 646 minutes, or 11 hours of voice chat every month.

The company released the results of the study after analysing more telephone bills of 60,000 customers and surveying 3,000 teens.

It was found that teenage females sent and received an average of 4,050 texts a month and conducting 753 minutes of voice calls per month. Teenage boys on the other hand sent or received 2,539 text messages and talked for 525 minutes per month.

Source: IT Pro Portal
http://www.portal.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/10/15/us-teens-send-3339-texts-months-study-shows/

Adult Texting Increases, Teens Still Text More

Texting by American adults has increased substantially over the past year, but still does not approach the magnitude of text messages exchanged by adolescents. Some 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65% in September 2009. Fully 87% of teen cell users text. Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day.

Still, for most adults, voice calling is their primary use of the phone. They make and receive about 5 calls per day on average.

“Texting among adults has reached the mainstream and the charge is being lead by African-Americans, Hispanics and young adults,” said Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author the report. “Of course, none of these adult groups hold a candle to teens when it comes to texting, who swamp adults in messages sent per day by a factor of 5.”

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults.aspx

Many Parents Fret Over Time Kids Spend on Phones, Computers

Many American parents are worried that the large amount of time teens spend immersed in electronic media makes it difficult to discuss the dangers of risky behavior such as drug and alcohol use, a new study indicates.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America surveyed more than 1,200 parents and found that more than one-third are concerned about how TV (38 percent), computers (37 percent) and video games (33 percent) hinder parent-child communications.

More than one-quarter of parents are also worried about new forms of media such as cell phone texting (27 percent), and social networking sites such as Facebook (25 percent) and Twitter (19 percent).

"These new findings present a unique opportunity for parents to play a more active role in what their kids are watching, monitor how they are spending their time online and remain aware of the impact all of this media consumption is having on their impressionable teens," Steve Pasierb, president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said in an organization news release.

"We know that kids today are bombarded with pro-drug and drinking messages via everything from song lyrics, movies and video games, to social networking sites. Videos of kids abusing cough medicine and common household products to get high are all too accessible online and that's why it's more important than ever for parents to break through the media noise and make their voices heard," he added.

One way for parents to do that is to use electronic devices to connect with their teens to begin and maintain a dialogue about avoiding risky behaviors. While not as good as an in-person conversation, parents can use e-mail, cell phones and texting to begin a dialogue with a reluctant teen, and to reinforce safety messages at times when teen drug use and drinking is more likely, such as after school, on weekends and during unsupervised periods.

Source: Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/641960.html

Teens Prefer Texting

In a recent survey by ExactTarget, U.S. teens (ages 15-17) say they prefer texting over other methods of communication including email and Facebook.

Texting was the communication activity teens were most likely to report having increased over the past six months, according to the ExactTarget survey. There were also significant numbers of teens using Facebook, meeting in person and communicating via e-mail more, but most respondents held those activities steady.

 

Source: eMarketer
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007737

Recap: Teens and Mobile Phones

Last week I posted about the Pew Internet study documenting the latest statistics on teens' use of mobile phones and revealing that text messaging is their chief method of communication. Today, I'm following up with a graphic from Pew that displays a summary of how teens communicate with friends by different methods. Also, there's a good summary of Pew's findings at the source link below.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones.aspx

Where's Your Kid?

I was doing my regular news surfing this morning and came across a new iPhone application, iCurfew, that boasts a simple interface, allowing kids to check in with their parents via email, sending Mom or Dad an un-editable link that maps their precise location.

The app utilizes the iPhone's GPS capabilities to generate a link with precise coordinates - and when parents receive the email, they click on the link and a map is displayed with the location of the phone.

A positive aspect of this application is that it doesn't spy on the kid and generate the email automatically, but rather depends on the kid to identify their location (which generates the link) and then send the email.

My mind immediately wanders over to some lousy ways this application could be used by parents which could damage trust between them and their kids.

Also, I'm thinking that because many kids today are extremely tech saavy, if using iCurfew, they could pretty easily figure out ways to circumvent the purpose (the kid leaves their phone with a friend at the movies, who sends the check-in email, while the kid goes somewhere else, for example.) And, it seems reasonable to think that kids will come up with hacks to the application to send a false location.

So, in terms of a parent's overall goal of keeping track of one's kids, iCurfew, might not be a good option, especially for those who are having problems and trust issues with their kids.

But, in some circumstances, where parents and kids have an overall healthy relationship it might be a positive tool, not only for keeping track of where kids are, but helping to build accountability and responsibility in a teen's life.

The app also has some other benefits outside of the primary purpose of checking in. For example, helping parents with precise information on where to pick up their kid, and where to meet one another, let's say when on a shopping trip at a big mall.

In fact, I'm thinking of all of the uses it might provide for me in connecting with my wife. Like sending her my location when I'm out fishing local rivers on my own. Could provide some piece of mind for both of us. Seems like it would be well worth the $0.99 to download and use it myself.

The application is only available for use on the iPhone.

Source: HomeWord / Center for Youth and Family at APU