Pinoy kids enjoy greater access to digital technologies

The Cartoon Network has released the results of its latest in-depth study on Filipino children and their lifestyle, “New Generations Philippines 2007,” revealing how kids enjoy greater access to digital technologies and play in the consumer and environmental space today. 

Not surprisingly, the “tweenies” — kids aged seven to 14 (a combination of tweens and teens), are true digital natives, consuming media for entertainment and social networking, and are in the know about trends and issues — including computer and video games, and concern for global warming.

“Young people have the inherent ability to assimilate new technology and adapt to change at a phenomenal rate, and Filipino kids are no exception, especially in the way they choose to communicate with one another. Whether through text or instant messaging, e-mail or via homepages, kids are readily embracing these channels of communication and socialization as they become more accessible, and are making them their own,” said Duncan Morris, vice president for research and market development of Turner International Asia-Pacific Ltd.

Internet usage has become much more widespread, with almost half (46 percent) of kids now using the Internet (used in past 30 days) versus just a quarter (26 percent) before. 

Forty-three percent of the Internet users send/receive e-mail at least weekly, and 35 percent use instant messenger in the same timeframe.

Kids have been quick to embrace Web 2.0 applications such as video (72 percent of Internet users aged 7 to 14 have watched video online) and multi-player games (68 percent).

Notably, social networking is increasingly becoming a part of life, with three quarters (76 percent of Internet users) having created their own homepage and networks of friends online, and 31 percent (of total kids aged seven to 14) claiming to have made a friend on the Internet whom they have never met in real life. 

As a result, kids of all ages are coming to rely on text-based communication, as one third (of total kids 7-14) and 52 percent of teens aged 13 to 14 agree with the statement: “Without e-mail, instant messaging or texting, it would be difficult to stay in touch with my friends.”   

Growth in access to digital technologies has done nothing to diminish the importance of television in kids’ lives.

With 96 percent viewing TV “yesterday,” it is the only medium consumed universally by kids on a daily basis, and towers above all other media (radio is the next most widely consumed media with 30 percent of the kids listening “yesterday”). Year after year, kids continue to vote “watching television” as their overall favorite leisure activity.

Cartoon Network commissioned its third New Generations Philippines survey tailored specifically for the Philippines (previous surveys were conducted in 2003 and 2005).

It is a quantitative study that provides unique insights into the minds and habits of Filipino kids aged seven to 14. 

New Generations 2007 was conducted for Cartoon Network by research company Synovate, via face-to-face, in-home interviews in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao with a total of 1,000 kids aged seven to 14, and one of their parents. 

This year, a booster sample (200) of moms of younger kids aged four to six was added, thus widening the scope to give a more complete picture of kids than ever before.

“As part of Cartoon Network’s continuing commitment to be the kids’ expert in the Philippines, our New Generations Philippines survey is instrumental in helping us update our knowledge of Pinoy kids, and this time we examined how kids’ lives are being shaped by the changing digital landscape, how they accept, adapt and live with technological advances,” Morris said.