Nielsen has some new research out on tweens use of cell phones and the internet today revealing that 8-12 year olds are fast becoming the next big group of cell phone users (35 percent own a cell phone). From the press release:

- 20% of tweens have used text messaging
- 21% of tweens have used ring & answer tones.

While text-messaging and ringtones remain the most pervasive non-voice functions on the phone, other content such as downloaded wallpapers, music, games and Internet access also rank highly among tweens.

That's a lot of tweens texting and buying ringtones. I'm imagining parents groaning at this reality and at having to manage minutes and extras on these bills. Nielsen also reported 5 percent have access to the internet from their phones, making it even harder for parents to control where their 8-year-old may be going online.

More on tweens' mobile internet usage:

While 41% of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience: 26% of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a friend's house and 17% say they do so at social events.

Young mobile users are also turning to their phones for in-home entertainment:

- 58% of tweens who download or watch TV on their phone do so at home;
- 64% of tweens who download or play music on their phone do so at home;
- 56% of tweens who access the Internet on their phone do so at home.

And finally, for tweens, being online is still mostly about playing games (we heard this from our tween panel at the NYC Mashup):

Regarding cross media behavior of tweens, Nielsen reports that tweens spend less time surfing the Internet than their teen counterparts. In this report, 48% of U.S. tweens said they spend less than one hour per day online. When they are online, 70% of tweens use the Internet for gaming. Comparatively, 81% of U.S. teens say they spend one hour or more per day online, with e-mail being the most pervasive online activity for this age group.

I'm not buying the email part with teens, perhaps it's messaging within social networks…

Categorized under: Mobile, Tweens

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