Engl. transl.: Young and Connected. Children and adolescents in the digital society

"For most children and young people, smartphones are part of their everyday life. To them, short messages are more important than face-to-face conversations when exchanging with friends or family. Moreover, the internet is an important medium for young people (16-18 years) to keep up to date with news. These are some of the core findings of Bitkom's new children and adolescent study. It examines important trends in the usage behaviour of the "digital natives" as well as their experiences on the web. The study is based on a representative survey of 962 children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 18. The analysis also includes a comparison with the results of the last survey from 2011. In addition, the report provides recommendations for action and advice on how parents can support their children online." (BITKOM 2014) (URL: https://www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Publikationen/Jung-und-vernetzt-Kinder-und-Jugendliche-in-der-digitalen-Gesellschaft.html) [translated by the coder]

"Nowadays, modern information and communication devices are a part of everyday life for children and adolescents. One fifth (20 per cent) already use a smartphone at the age of 6 to 7. While younger children use their parents' devices, the use of smartphones from the age of ten corresponds to the ownership of the devices. Among 12- to 13-year-olds, smartphone use is standard with a share of 85 per cent." (BITKOM 2014, 4). "Communication via SMS, MMS or messaging services such as WhatsApp and iMessage is now more important to young people than telephoning." (BITKOM 2014, 6). "From the age of 12, many young people have also mastered advanced applications such as photo editing, creating spreadsheets or presentations. The majority of 16- to 18-year-olds can use almost all applications independently." (BITKOM2014, 10). "One can therefore conclude: From the age of 10, almost all children are on the internet. (...) The older the children and adolescents are, the more often they are online and the more time they spend on the internet." (BITKOM 2014, 12) "The older children and young people are, the more likely they are to use mobile devices to access the internet." (BITKOM 2014, 14). "Younger children approach the Internet primarily through media use. From the age of 8, the online applications become much more diverse." (BITKOM 2014, 15). "A feature of the internet in general and social networks, in particular, is the possibility to share content such as photos, videos or texts with other users. However, this is not given for young people and is only learned by them as their internet skills increase." (BITKOM 2014, 18). "The internet is the most important medium for young people aged 16 to 18 to keep up to date with the latest news: 85 per cent in this age group inform themselves about current affairs on the web. (...) On the internet, social networks are again the most important source of news for young people." (BITKOM 2014, 19) "Among young internet users, the positive experiences with the internet outweigh the negative ones: 69% were able to expand their knowledge; one in three improved their performance at school." (BITKOM 2014, 20). "From the age of 12, parents allow their children more leeway when surfing the web." (BITKOM 2014, 24). "Younger children tend to use easily accessible, traditional media; for older children, the use shifts to online media. Online media complements offline media, but only replace them in the long term." (BITKOM 2014, 33). [translated by the coder]