Last Tuesday was Safer Internet Day, and Bee Secure--an organisation dedicated to promoting safety and awareness with regard to the digital world--took the opportunity to publish its report on internet use among young people aged 3-30.
First exposure
At what age do children get their first smartphone? Graphic: Bee Secure
According to the sample of parents surveyed, the first smartphones arrive at the age of three, but the numbers really take off at 12: more than a third of kids get one that year, which is incidentally when they start secondary school.
Nearly half of their peers (49%) already have one by the age of 12, however. And by 15, almost nobody (97%) is left behind. These figures are in line with those reported for 2022.
Smartphones are not the only tools young people have at their disposal. In the 3-11 age group, almost a quarter of children have a video game console and some 30% have a tablet. Half the children in this age group have no device at all, a number that falls to 1% in the older age category. In that category (ages 12-16), 65% have a tablet, 48% a video game console, 40% a laptop and 36% a TV. For their part, smart watches and e-readers are on the rise, respectively topping the 10% mark.
Most-used apps
Youtube, Whatsapp and Snapchat are the apps most used by youngsters aged 12-30. While Instagram is the second most popular application among the 17-30 age group, it is losing popularity among youngsters in the 8-16 category, where Tiktok is making inroads.
In addition, audio and video streaming platforms such as Spotify and Netflix, as well as gaming applications, complete the list. This is the first time that streaming platforms have been included in the Bee Secure Radar report, and they feature prominently.
Facebook, the social network with the most subscribers in Luxembourg, is only mentioned in the 17-30 age group, with over three-quarters (77%) of that demographic reporting using it. Youtube shows a slight increase across all age groups.
If we focus on schoolchildren, students in both primary and secondary education appear to prefer Snapchat, Whatsapp, Instagram and TikTok over Facebook.
20 more minutes in one year
According to the German JIM study, which has been examining the media behaviour of young people aged 12-19 in Germany every year since 1998, people in that age bracket spend an average of 3 hours and 44 minutes a day on their smartphones.
This is a significant increase from last year (3 hours, 24 minutes). “The results are easily transposable to Luxembourg,” says the report, published last week.
In the 17-30 age group, over half spend more than four hours a day looking at a screen, and 20% spend more than six hours a day. Among the activities cited, social networking, online games, chatting and streaming are the most frequent.
The Centre for Excessive Behaviour and Behavioural Addictions (ZEV) also finds it “worrying” that 25% of youngsters aged 12-16--and 56% of those aged 17-30--use their smartphone for over four hours a day. “This percentage is high if we consider that these figures do not take into account the time spent in front of a tablet, laptop or television, which are sporadically added to smartphone use,” the organisation adds.
This article was originally published in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.
