To most adults, knowing which technologies kids prefer and why, is at best, a guessing game. Which is more important: cell phones? iPods? MySpace? In the past year, some very insightful leisure time and technology reports about kids have come out from The NPD Group (see prior blog post in March 2007), Nickelodeon (prior posts in Nov 2006 and Jan 2007), and recently a new division of Weekly Reader called Weekly Reader Research. Each group has something very unique to share about kids and technology. Yesterday, portions of a new study called “The Circuits of Cool / Digital Playground” was released. This study, which interviewed 18, 000 kids and youth from 16 different countries, was collaboratively developed by MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft. This latest survey looks at technology and its influences on lifestyle of kids (8-14) and young people (14 – 24) around the globe.

Here are a few top level insights from the study:

• Technology has enabled young people to have more and closer friendships, thanks to constant connectivity.
• Kids and young people don’t love the technology itself — they just love how it enables them to communicate all the time, express themselves and be entertained.
• Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and mobile/sms are complementary to, not competitive with, TV. TV is part of young peoples’ digital conversation.
• Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.

Here are a few data snippets from this survey looking only at kids 8-14:

• 59% of 8-14 year olds still prefer their TV to their PCs.
• 68% of 8-14 respondents said they felt safer having their mobile phones with them outside the home.
• When parents aren’t around, 8-14s are more likely to communicate with friends, participate in chat forums and use the internet for entertainment.
• Under the age of 14, kids generally use the phone as a toy. After 14, the mobile phone quickly becomes a means of self-expression and communication.

The full press release, which includes comparison data for kids and young people around the world regarding cell phone use, online friends, social networking, TV, computer use and more, can be found here.

Dr. Ellen Wartella, executive Vice Chancelor and Provost of the University of California at Riverside, and youth media expert, spoke in Boston recently at a conference put on by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). Ellen has been involved with many important studies regarding kids, young and old, and their media habits. During her presentation, Ellen discussed the ever expanding nature of media use by youth audiences citing three different studies that collectively span almost 100 years.

The first study presented was conducted in 1911 in New York City. 1, 140 youths age 11 – 14 participated in the study and were found to be spending 4 to 5 hours a week watching movies at the nickelodeon. It’s worth pointing out that movies were the primary media format consumed at the time by younger audiences; Radio and television were not available yet, and magazines specifically targeting this demographic had not yet been discovered as they would be in later decades.

Next, Ellen referenced a study conducted in the 1930’s outside of New York City in Westchester County. 795 high school youths were asked to keep a diary of their media habits. The results of this study showed that this audience had an average of 7 hours of leisure time during the week on weekdays and 11 hours of leisure time averaged over the weekend. This group listened to the radio on average for almost 5 hours a week (4 hours and 40 minutes) and watched about 5 hours of movies per week. Collectively this group consumed about 10 hours of media a week, out of a total of 18 hours of leisure time within that week.

The latest study discussed was that of the Kaiser Family Foundation on Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year olds, published in 2005. More than 2, 000 children were asked to keep diaries of their media habits. The results of this study found that this age group spends about 6.5 hours a day consuming media, primarily screened media, and of that, about 26% of this time is often spent using multiple media types at the same time. (Also surprising in this and related research at Kaiser which I discuss in a prior post that children ages 0 – 2 were found to be watching about 2 hours of screened media a day.) In another post I reference a 2007 NPD Group study that found kids ages 5 – 12 have about 6 hours of leisure time per day with about 14 hours per day over the weekend. While these two different studies were not conducted using the exact same age group, the research suggest about 45 hours of media consumption a week out of about 60 hours of leisure time a week.

If you would like to hear an audio recording of this entire presentation where Dr. Wartella touches on other aspects of media use, like the type of content viewed and food advertising to kids through media, click here.

Robin Raskin, featured columnist for Yahoo Tech and youth technology expert for many nationally syndicated newspapers and magazines, was recently in my area speaking about Internet safety and kids. There were about 300 people at the presentation. Half of the group were sixth graders (ages 11 – 12), the other half were parents. The event was held at a local university just outside the Boston area.

I’ve heard Robin speak many times about technology. Her latest presentation, as always, was great. She pointed out all kinds of Internet safety tips of benefit to both parent and child. Robin did not shy away from the tough topics to discuss with kids like online predators, scams, identity theft, and pornography. She offered some excellent advice about what kids and parents can do, both together and apart, to avoid being taken advantage of or exploited in this ever changing digital world.

One part of her presentation left me thinking long after its completion. It started when Robin asked the kids in the audience a few questions. The first was “How many “texters” do we have here in the audience?” (Or how many kids communicate with text via instant messaging or by cell phone?) Practically no parents raised their hands but more than 60% of the kids responded yes. This first question made it quite clear that computers and cell phones are common communication tools for both young and old, but each group uses these technologies to communicate in significantly different ways.

After the show-of-hands about texting, a couple more questions were offered. “How many of you use the social networking site Club Penguin?” Surprisingly, only about 8 hands went up in the audience. This question was followed up by “How many of you use Webkinz?” This time, only about four kids raised their hand.

In this day, it’s pretty hard not to know about these two successful social networking sites for kids. Club Penguin first came on the scene in 2005 and states that it’s an online service for kids ages 8 – 14 ( grades 2 – 8 ). Webkinz also started in 2005 and claims it’s target audience is for kids 6 – 13 ( grades K – 7 ). Social networking sites for kids are growing very fast in their appeal. Other kids’ social networking sites beyond these two include such destinations as imbee, Runescape, StarDoll, BarbieGirls, and Whyville. (Whyville being the strongest educational player of the bunch. To read additional thoughts I have about Whyville, take a look at a recent interview I had with a Boston area online magazine for tech saavy women called Misstropolis.)

The number one most popular destination for kids online today is Webkinz as reported by HitWise (HitWise is one of many different web research services available to businesses). Nieslen//NetRatings, another web research firm, reports that Webkinz had 3.6 million unique visitors in April 2007 with Business 2.0 Magazine reporting an average visit length of 128 minutes long. Those are some pretty impressive stats! As for Club Penguin, their numbers are equally impressive. Nielsen//NetRatings reports Club Penguin as having 4 million unique visitors in April 2007, with the Business 2.0 Magazine article also citing the average visit being 54 minutes long. Not too shabby!

So, if these two extremely popular websites for kids overlap nicely with the sixth grade demographic in the audience, why weren’t more hands raised? I found the response by this group of kids fascinating. Assuming that all the students heard the question, and I believe they did, here are a few theories:

• As these social networking sites begin to age, the target demographic shifts younger, from tweens 8-12 (grades 4 – 6) to kids ages 5 – 9 (grades K – 3). This may imply that when a new kids’ web destination first becomes available, an older demographic will lead in the use of these sites more often than their younger peers. As more and more younger users discover the product, the older crowd moves on to find the next new destination.
  

• As older tweens enter into their early teen years, it’s possible there’s a negative stigma attached to publicly admitting the use of these sites even though privately this older audience will continue to spend time at these destinations.
  

• It could be that sixth graders in urban areas may not be using these specific social networking sites as much as those in suburban areas. I wonder if it’s possible that the likes and dislikes of kids from the same age group in urban versus suburban areas or coastal versus heartland parts of the country differ from one another.
  

• It’s possible these sites never did have much appeal for an older audience as originally claimed by the owners of these companies (though I doubt this.)
  

• Or maybe the answer lies in some combination of the above or other possibilities yet to be defined.

Whatever the answer, it’s amazing to see how the responses of kids answering as a group might differ from that of carefully analyzed web data and claims from many individual users of the same demographic (in the same geographic location).

In my last few posts, I took a look at what new learning and technology toys you’ll be hearing about throughout 2007. But February isn’t just a time for new toys, its also a time when new reports come out about kids, and its a time when this industry looks to The NPD Group for the latest and greatest. While NPD reports on marketing and consumer trends across many different and varied industries, many stats and financial news that make headlines in the toy or video game industry come from this one organization.

One industry expert from NPD to watch for is Anita Frazier. Most quotes in the press about video game sales or the noteworthy toy trends come from her and her colleagues. One recent report by NPD, called the Kids’ Leisure Time II (a follow up to a similar report released in 2006), was presented by Ms. Frazier recently. While this presentation was very data rich, a number of noteworthy points about kids and their leisure time rose to the surface. These broader findings include:

• On average, kids ages 5 – 12 have about 58 hours of leisure time a week, with almost difference in time noted between genders. As kids get older within this demographic the amount of free time available tends to increase slightly.
• Kids ages 5 – 12 have about 14 hours of leisure time a day on weekends as opposed to about 6 hours of leisure time a day during the week.
• Of all the leisure time activities that kids participate in, kids generally spend more time doing those activities on the weekends than during the week, in all activities except for reading. The amount of time kids spend reading remains roughly the same through weekdays and the weekend.
• The number one leisure activity for kids 5 – 12 is watching TV or movies, followed by doing homework, then playing with toys and games, household chores, and finally using a computer for non-homework related purposes.
• Kids in the 2 – 4 age range have the greatest amount of free time, that being a little more than 94 hours a week.
• The number one leisure activity for kids 2 – 4 is playing with toys, followed by watching TV or movies.
• In terms of the kinds of activities kids participate in during leisure time, gender differences appear with kids 5 – 12, whereas these differences typically so not appear with kids 2 – 4.

The amount of information presented in this short overview was pretty extensive, and I know it was just the tip of the iceberg when compared to the full report. These few points alone hint to the rapidly changing nature of the toy industry. Kids have a growing interest in technology and consumer electronics as playthings. And as this report describes TV viewing as the number one leisure time activities kids engage in, its no wonder why we see more and more products for kids that hook up to a TV, have their own screen, or work in some combination with a DVD player, plug and play device or computer.

In my next post, I’ll take a look at the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative spearheaded by MIT and technology evangelist Nicholas Negroponte. Make no bones about it, this initiative is picking up speed quickly. The $100 laptops will be rolling off of the assembly line shortly in very large numbers, to be distributed to children in early adopter countries around the globe!

Now having the opportunity to digest all that I’ve seen at Toy Fair, it was truly a great year for the show. So much innovation. Lots of fantastic ideas. This industry has to constantly recreate itself, looking for that fresh new plaything that will steal the hearts and minds of kids and parents. This blog entry will be my last of four posts regarding what I saw at the show. As promised, here are a handful of technology toy products with learning in mind that grabbed my attention. While these toys may not make front page news, they all have a magical quality about them.

Aerobotic Butterfly by Super Creation
If I could take just one toy home that I saw at Toy Fair, it would be this one. (Remember, I spent three days at the show and saw LOTS of new products). In a tiny little booth, way in the back of the Javits Center, far off the beaten path, I discovered this gem. It’s a remote controlled butterfly that actually flies. While this product is not positioned as a learning product, I see all kinds of home and classroom discussions opportunities about the history of flight, butterflies, metamorphosis, technology and more. At the time of this blog post, the company’s website has not been built, but for those interested in learning more you can email inquiries to: info (at) supercreation (dot) com (dot) hk. Click here to see a video of the product in action.

Braincandy DVDs by Braincandy
Braincandy is a young company specializing in making DVD and audio CD products for very young children. Currently they have two DVD products available that help children learn about themselves through their flagship title that focuses on the five senses; a second is all about sight. Sample video clips seen from Braincandy’s website. With very high production values, and with fantastic and charming puppet creations, this company’s work is very original, striking, and appealing for both young children and their caregivers. More DVD and CD titles are expected to ship throughout 2007.

Solar powered robots by OWI
OWI is a technology toy company that specializes in offering small robotic science kits. This year they unveiled a number of new solar powered critters. To assemble, simply snap together all of the electronic parts. No soldering is required. Then you can watch them move when a light source is made available to power their motors. While you cannot currently purchase these items through the OWI website, I’ve provided links here to another distributor where you can purchase the four robots demonstrated at the show; a frog, grasshopper, crab, and inch worm.

Giggles – Computer Funtime for Baby by Leveractive
Leveractive has succeeded in creating two very engaging and very playful CD-ROM titles specifically for babies (and their parents). Two different titles, one called Shapes, the other My Animal Friends, allow babies to hit any key on a computer keyboard to bring up many fun animations, music and sound effects. The developers have made sure that there’s no way a baby can accidentally hit key combinations or the Escape key to cause havoc at the desktop level. Each title contains 14 charming activities. The content is very age appropriate and also offers English and Spanish set-up options right on the same CD.

In my next post I’ll explore recently findings released by NPD regarding kids, leisure time activity, and screened content.