According to a survey conducted in 2024 in the United States, ** percent of respondents stated that their children got their own cell phone when they were aged between 12 and 13. Furthermore, ** percent of respondents stated their kids got their own device when **** or younger.

According to a survey conducted in 2024 in the United States, ** percent of respondents stated that their children will receive their own cell phone when they will be ** or **. Furthermore, ** percent of respondents stated their kids will get their own device when ** or **.

According to a survey of parents and children in the UK conducted in 2024, ** percent of children between 16 and 17 years old owned a smartphone, while ** percent of respondents aged between ***** and **** did not have a mobile phone.

Electronic devices available to children Mobile phones are not the only devices children are exposed to daily. At home, indeed, they have access to all kinds of electronic devices, such as TVs, gaming consoles, and radios. For instance, in 2020, ** percent of children had access to a smart TV, and ** percent had a game console. Furthermore, ** percent of children in the UK had access to a PC, laptop, or netbook with an internet connection. Children’s online activities British children perform many different activities online, with mobile phones being the most used devices to go online. Among the most recurring online activities were playing games and watching videos, especially on YouTube. Furthermore, children in the UK appear to spend quite some time on social media platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat, where they spend on average ** and ** minutes daily, respectively.

According to a 2019 SellCell survey, most children are allowed to have their first cell phone by the ages of 11-12. *** percent get their own phone as early as between one and two years old.

As of April 2022, ** percent of children aged between two and six years in Canada were reported to use a mobile phone. **** of the children aged between seven and 11 years were reported to have a mobile device such as a smartphone. This figure rose to ** percent in the case of teenagers aged between 12 and 17 years.

The graph illustrates the share of children aged between * to ** who use a mobile phone in France in 2018, by age. In that year, almost ** percent of French children aged 14 had a smartphone.

The majority of Norwegian children owned a mobile phone as of 2020, regardless of age and gender. The 2020 survey showed that all boys aged between 13 and 14 years had their own mobile phone. The corresponding figure for girls of that age group was ** percent.

The Japanese Kids Speech database (Upper Grade) contains the total recordings of 232 Japanese Kids speakers (104 males and 128 females), from 9 to 13 years’ old (fourth, fifth and sixth graders in elementary school), recorded in quiet rooms using smartphones. This database may be combined with the Japanese Kids Speech database (Lower Grade) also available in the ELRA Catalogue under reference ELRA-S0411.Number of speakers, utterances and duration, age are as follows :Number of speakers 232 (104 male/128 female)Number of utterances (average):385 utterances per speakerTotal number of utterances:89,454Age: from 9 to 13 years' oldTotal hours of data: 145.41018 sentences were used. Recordings were made through smartphones and audio data stored in .wav files as sequences of 16KHz Mono, 16 bits, Linear PCM.Database:・Audio data: WAV format, 16KHz, 16bit, mono (recorded with smartphone)・Recording scripts: TSV format(tab-delimited), UTF-8 (without BOM)・Transcription data: TSV format(tab-delimited), UTF-8 (without BOM)・Size: 16.2GBNumber of speakers per age:9 years' old: 56 (21 male, 35 female)10 years' old: 71 (30 male, 41 female)11 years' old: 65 (28 male, 37 female)12 years' old: 38 (24 male, 14 female)13 years' old: 2 (1 male, 1 female)Structure of database:├─ readme.txt├─ Japanese Kids Speech Database.pdfDescription document of the database├─ Transcription.tsvTranscription├─ scripts.tsvScript│└─ voices/directory of audio data ├─ high/directory of upper grade └─(speaker_ID/)directory of speaker ID (six digits) └─(audio_file)audio file (WAV format, 16KHz, 16bit, mono)File naming conventions of audio files are as follows:Field number | Contents | Description | Remarks0 | Language ID | “JA” (fixed) | Japanese1 | Speaker ID | Six digit | 5XXXXX2 | Script ID | HXXXX | XXXX: four digits3 | Age | Two digits4 | Gender | M: male, F: femaleFiled separation character is “_”.For example, if the audio file name is “JA_500002_H0001_10_F.wav, this file has the following meaning:JA: Language ID (Japanese)500002: speaker ID H0001: script ID 10: age (ten years old)F: gender (female)

This statistic shows the results of a survey concerning the ownership of smartphones among children and teenagers in Germany in 2022, broken down by age group. During the survey period it was found that nine percent of children aged between six and seven years owned a mobile phone. 81 percent of 12 to 13 year olds also owned a phone.

The Chinese Kids Speech database (Lower Grade) contains the total recordings of 184 Chinese Kids speakers (98 males and 86 females), from 6 to 10 years’ old recorded in quiet rooms using smartphone. This database may be combined with the Chinese Kids Speech database (Upper Grade) also available in the ELRA Catalogue under reference ELRA-S0497.Number of speakers, utterances, duration and age are as follows :Number of speakers (Male/Female): 184 (98/86)Number of utterances (average): 237 utt/spkrTotal number of utterances: 43,667Age: from 6 to 10Total hours of data: 871,426 sentences were used. Recordings were made through smartphones and audio data stored in .wav files as sequences of 16KHz Mono, 16 bits, Linear PCM.Database・Audio data: WAV format, 16KHz, 16bit, mono (recorded with smartphone)・Transcription data: TSV format(tab-delimited), UTF-8 (without BOM) ), Line ending: LF・Size: 9.4GBAgeMaleFemaleTotal611617711819818294794736831011718Structure of database :├─ readme.txt├─ Chinese Kids Speech Database (Lower grade).pdfDescription document of the database├─ transcription(Lower).tsvTranscription└─ Low/directory of audio data └─ (1st/2nd/3rd)directory of version ID └─(0/1)directory of gender (0: male, 1: female) └─(audio_file)audio file (WAV format, 16KHz, 16bit, mono)Field information of “transcription(Lower).tsv” are as follows:Field numberContents0Script ID1Speaker ID2Audio file name3Transcription (in Chinese)File naming conventions of audio files are as follows:Field numberContentsDescriptionRemarks0Script IDFour digitsXXXX: four digits1Speaker IDThree digitsXXX: three digits2AgeTwo digitsFrom 06 to 103Gender0: male, 1: female4Utterance No.Three digitsSequential numbering starting from 001 within each speaker5Recording dateYYYYMMDDHHMM6Recording device nameRecording device nameEx. NTH-AN007OSOperating System info of recording deviceEx. android-118Durationduration in msecDuration of the actual spoken utteranceFiled separation character is “_”.For example, if the audio file name is “1318_373_09_1_010_202205041857_NTH-AN00_android-11_5480.wav “, this file has the following meaning:1318: script ID373: speaker ID09: age (nine years old)1: gender (female)010: utterance number202205041857: recording date (May 4, 2022, at 6:57 PM)NTH-AN00: recording device nameandroid-11: operating system info of recording device5480: duration of the actual spoken utterance (5,480 msec)

As of October 2023, 97 percent of teenage girls in the United States had access to smartphone access at home. Teen boys aged 13 to 17 years had a smartphone access rate of 94 percent. In total, 95 percent of U.S. teens had smartphone access at home.

Between 2015 and 2021, regardless of their age, the share of children owning a smartphone in the United States grew. During the 2021 survey, it was found that 31 percent of responding 8-year-olds owned a smartphone, up from only 11 percent in 2015.

In 2024, around **** percent of children aged six to nine had a risk of smartphone overdependence. On average, around **** percent of the surveyed children aged three to nine were at risk of smartphone overdependence that year.

In 2024, children in the United Kingdom spent an average of *** minutes per day on TikTok. This was followed by Instagram, as children in the UK reported using the app for an average of ** minutes daily. Children in the UK aged between four and 18 years also used Facebook for ** minutes a day on average in the measured period. Mobile ownership and usage among UK children In 2021, around ** percent of kids aged between eight and 11 years in the UK owned a smartphone, while children aged between five and seven having access to their own device were approximately ** percent. Mobile phones were also the second most popular devices used to access the web by children aged between eight and 11 years, as tablet computers were still the most popular option for users aged between three and 11 years. Children were not immune to the popularity acquired by short video format content in 2020 and 2021, spending an average of ** minutes per day engaging with TikTok, as well as over ** minutes on the YouTube app in 2021. Children data protection In 2021, ** percent of U.S. parents and ** percent of UK parents reported being slightly concerned with their children’s device usage habits. While the share of parents reporting to be very or extremely concerned was considerably smaller, children are considered among the most vulnerable digital audiences and need additional attention when it comes to data and privacy protection. According to a study conducted during the first quarter of 2022, ** percent of children’s apps hosted in the Google Play Store and ** percent of apps hosted in the Apple App Store transmitted users’ locations to advertisers. Additionally, ** percent of kids’ apps were found to collect persistent identifiers, such as users’ IP addresses, which could potentially lead to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) violations in the United States. In the United Kingdom, companies have to take into account several obligations when considering online environments for children, including an age-appropriate design and avoiding sharing children’s data.

According to a 2023 survey conducted in the United States, teenagers spent an average of 4.8 hours every day on social media platforms. Girls spent 5.3 hours on social networks daily, compared to 4.4 hours for boys. YouTube and TikTok were the most popular online networks among those aged 13 to 19, with 1.9 and 1.5 hours of average daily engagement, respectively. The most used platform for girls was TikTok, while the most used platform for boys was YouTube. Are teens constantly connected to social media? YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most attractive and time-consuming platforms for young internet users. A survey conducted in the U.S. in 2023 found that 62 percent of teenagers were almost constantly connected to Instagram, and 17 percent were almost constantly connected to TikTok. Overall, 71 percent of teens used YouTube daily, and 47 percent used Snapchat daily. Furthermore, YouTube had a 93 percent reach among American teens in 2023, down from 95 percent in 2022. Teens and their internet devices For younger generations especially, social media is mostly accessed via mobile devices, and almost all teenagers in the United States have smartphone access. A 2023 survey conducted in the U.S. found that 92 percent of teens aged 13 to 14 years had access to a smartphone at home, as well as 97 percent of those aged 15 to 17. Additionally, U.S. girls were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to have access to a smartphone.

In nearly **** out of ten households with children aged 12 to 14 years in Russia, children used a smartphone in 2024. In general, a smartphone was the most popular device among Russian children. Furthermore, a tablet was used by children in around ********* of households with kids from 7 to 11 years old.

Every day or nearly every day the majority of German children watch TV in their free time. They also do their homework, study and play inside. These are the most popular daily activities, though using a smartphone, meeting with friends and listening to music are also climbing to the top of the list.

Too much TV?

In different age groups, the average television viewing time among children in minutes per day has decreased during the last five years. This is, on the one hand, a trend that leads to hope that children will and want to pursue other leisure activities, which obviously brings many benefits, with a positive impact on health being just one example. On the other hand, the rise of mobile technology and increased access to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones may simply influence the shift towards different viewing habits.

School and homework

German children start school at six years old, which is also true for many European countries. Schools as such provide activities for occupying children’s free time, homework being the ready example, and they also foster potential for meeting with friends after classes, sports and other activities that happen simply through being exposed to a peer group on a daily basis.

In 2024, gaming consoles were the most popular gaming device among children in the UK, with 68 percent of children aged 10 to 12 years being console gamers. Smartphones were ranked second as the most-used gaming device.