Teenagers and youngsters in India spend more time browsing the internet on smartphones than watching television, according to a new study by Ericsson.
The study conducted by Ericsson Consumer Lab revealed that around 30 million Indian youngsters born after 1994, commonly referred to as Generation Z, possess mobile phones and three million among them have access to the broadband technology on smartphones. Around 77 percent of children are found to be unhappy with poor services provided by mobile operators in the country.
"Around 30 million of 69 million urban Generation Z consumers own mobile phones, and 3 million of these use mobile broadband on their phones," said Ajay Gupta, Ericsson India's Vice President and Head for Strategy and marketing, reported Press Trust of India.
The study, carried out under the name "The Digital Lives of Generation Z (people born between 1994 and 2004)", studied 3,500 children and around 1,000 parents of 7,700 households in 16 Indian cities. The study also reported that seven percent of youngsters own smartphones and 20 percent among them are aged below 11 years.
The results revealed that 76 percent of urban parents seek log details of their kids from mobile service providers, but only one in three parents are able to track their mobile and internet activities.
"Only one in three urban parents are able to keep track of their children's communication activities and expect service providers to offer services in order to manage and monitor their children's mobile and Internet usage," said Gupta.
The shift in the use of mobile technologies among teens and children has prompted parents to become more aware of the latest technologies. Around 63 percent of parents showed their interest in apps that would help block inappropriate content. It was also found that 58 percent of youngsters would rather give up television, which was once a dominant medium, to spend more time on mobile internet.
The influence of the latest technology on teens and children is such that they spend around seven hours on gadgets like mobile phones, gaming consoles and television on a daily basis.
