Two-thirds of Pinoy kids own cellphones

Two-thirds of Filipino children now own a mobile phone, according to a study conducted by leading kids’ channel Cartoon Network.

 

The study, entitled “New Generations 2012,” revealed that mobile phone ownership among young Filipinos are now at 65 percent, higher than Australia’s 42 percent and Taiwan’s 22 percent.

 

Last year, BuddeComm, an independent telecommunications research site based in Australia, pegged mobile phone penetration in the country at “approaching 100 percent,” and said that Filipinos send an average of 1.8 billion messages a day.

 

The biennial New Generations study also showed the Filipino kids are also among the most tech-savvy in the Asia Pacific region.

 

More than half of kids in urban areas have Internet access at home, 54 percent have access to digital cameras, 20 percent have smartphones, and 16 percent have tablets. 

 

Ninety-nine percent claims to have watched TV—a third, or 38 percent, of them from flat panel screens.

 

New Generations 2012, the fifth study since 2003, highlighted a “fortified” relationship between kids and technology resulting from a “sharp increase” in access.

 

While TV remains the top medium of choice for young Filipinos, Internet is fast catching up. According to the survey, 76 percent of children access the Internet, and 82 percent of those with Internet access at home go online at least once a week.

 

Among Internet activities, online gaming claims the top spot, with 58 percent of Filipino children playing online games daily. 

 

Social media comes in at second, with 52 percent logging on to various social media every day.

 

Forty-one percent listen to music, 36 percent stream videos, and 23 percent upload and share photos.

 

But while only 28 percent use the Internet for homework, a surprising seven out of ten respondents claim that they are regular book readers.

 

Thirteen percent read newspapers and nine percent read magazines.

 

This, the study notes, shows that “technology doesn’t always win out.”

 

The New Generations 2012 results were obtained from face-to-face, in-home interviews with 1,000 randomly selected kids from Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao conducted between February 25 and March 26, 2012. –Ralph Angelo Ty/KG, GMA News