What young people do online

How long do teenagers surf the Internet today? Which online services do they use and what about security? The JAMES Study 2016 now provides the answers.

Every two years, over 1000 young people between the ages of 12 and 19 are surveyed in Switzerland about their media behaviour. The results of the latest JAMES study (Youth, Activities, Media Survey Switzerland) are now available. According to the results, young people are online more often for the first time since the study began in 2010: 2.5 hours a day during the week and 3 hours and 40 minutes at the weekend - half an hour more each day than in 2012 and 2014.

YouTube is the new television

YouTube is by far the most popular website among our children. 75 per cent of the young people surveyed can name a «favourite YouTube star» - in German-speaking Switzerland, for example, Bianca Heinicke from BibisBeautyPalace, in French-speaking Switzerland the comedian Cyprien and in Ticino the gamer St3pNy.

Image and video win

Three out of four 16 to 19-year-olds are on Facebook. 12 to 15-year-olds are less interested in Facebook, preferring to use Instagram and Snapchat - platforms for pictures and videos. These have been the big winners since 2014, meaning that a new generation of users is growing up. Nevertheless, Facebook remains strongly positioned as Instagram, alongside WhatsApp, is part of the group.

Boys play games, girls get hit on

Girls and boys behave differently. This is hardly surprising at first. Let's take a closer look: Boys are more liberal with their online data and disclose their gender, hobbies or place of residence more often. This may also have something to do with the fact that girls have more frequent experiences with unwanted digital contact and are therefore more cautious. Boys come into contact with pornography more often - actively and passively. And boys game five times more often than girls - 64 versus 12 per cent. What is striking and reassuring for parents is that gaming as a leisure activity decreases with age. On the other hand, the fact that so-called shooter games are also very popular with young people under the age of 16 - even though these games are often only authorised for 16 or 18 year olds - is a cause for concern.

Everyone is mobile

98 per cent own a smartphone, almost one in two own a mobile games console and 39 per cent own a tablet. This is one of the reasons why young people spend the majority of their online time on mobile devices. 87 per cent access social networks on mobile devices, 78 per cent watch videos on mobile devices and 91 per cent surf the internet on mobile devices. Mobile access is probably also the reason for the increase in online time.
The results of the current study once again remind us parents to take on a new educational role: We are required to engage with our children's virtual reality. As in the real world, guidance and support are also needed in the digital world.
Picture: zVg

To the author:

The Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW and Swisscom have been conducting the JAMES study every two years since 2010. JAMES stands for «Youth, Activities, Media Survey Switzerland».
swisscom.ch/james