Watching em grow

TECHNOLOGY: Tech-savvy India rears tech-savvy kids.

They are not yet dropping out of school to set up companies (like Bill Gates did), but they sure know their way round a computer. That's Indian kids for you.

A whopping 40 per cent kids aged 7-14 across cities and socio economic classes are computer users. One in six of these computer users also surfs the internet, with more boys (20 per cent) than girls (15 per cent) surfing cyber space, according to the findings of Cartoon Network's latest kids' lifestyle study, dubbed New Generations 2005.

Internet surfing increases with age, with 20 per cent of 10-14 year olds accessing the Internet, compared to 11 per cent of 7-9 year olds. Also, more than half (58 per cent) of Internet users access the Internet at school, 26 per cent at cyber-cafes and 17 per cent from home.

The survey covered kids ranging in age from 4-19 years and included the not-so-well-to-do socio-economic class C as well.

The survey also shows the strong preference that Indian kids have for camera phones "" which rank the highest in the list of gadgets-of-desire for kids (7-14 year olds), with 74 per cent of children who've heard of one saying they would like to own one too, though one wonders what they want to click.

Next on the preference chart is the gaming device X-Box (45 per cent), Apple's iPod for mobile music (43 per cent) and Sony Playstation (33 per cent).

Nokia turned out to be the coolest brand in this age group, with 72 per cent agreeing that Nokia was "very cool", followed by Sony (71 per cent), LG (60 per cent), Reliance (56 per cent), Wipro (35 per cent), Microsoft (39 per cent), Google (31 per cent), HCL (32 per cent) and Infosys (30 per cent), among other brands.

Of course, the pocket money of these kids is hardly sufficient to buy these fancy gadgets, though the survey does reveal increasing frequency of pocket money grants.

Of the kids who receive pocket money (39 per cent), 54 per cent get pocket money on a daily basis. This is up from 33 per cent in 2004 and 24 per cent in 2003. Another finding is that 60 per cent of kids get gift money, which is Rs 306 per year on average.

In terms of shopping, 84 per cent of parents have taken their children with them for shopping, with 63 per cent of them shopping with their kids at least once a month. One in four kids asks for something (every time) while they are out shopping with their parents, and most of them get what they want as well.

And here is something which we cannot be unaware of "" a child's opinion and choice is taken into consideration even on high-value purchase decisions.

Over 70 per cent of parents agree that their child influences which brand is chosen while buying television sets, 70 per cent for computers, 67 per cent while buying mobile phones and 66 per cent on the purchase of a car!

As far as TV viewing goes, Cartoon Network (47 per cent), Pogo (14 per cent) and Star Plus (9 per cent) emerge as the top three channels among kids across India.

Moreover, TV viewing emerges as a universal hobby among kids, across the week, with over nine in 10 parents watching TV with their kids.

Coming to kids' top three favourite television genres, 79 per cent kids vote for cartoons, 34 per cent for sports and 31 per cent for movies.

The genres remain the same when split among boys and girls, with boys (45 per cent versus 22 per cent) opting for sports and girls (29 per cent versus 17 per cent) preferring dance/music shows.

Shahrukh Khan rules the roost as the favourite actor, with 20 per cent of the total kids (7-14) voting for him, while Rani Mukherji emerges the favourite actress among all respondents, with 16 per cent voting in her favour.

Sachin Tendulkar continues to be Indian children's favourite sportsperson, with 41 per cent of kids aged 7-14 voting for him, followed by Rahul Dravid at 13 per cent, and then Sourav Ganguly and Sania Mirza at 6 per cent each.