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Digital kids
Where the wired things are
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 25, 2006 4:00 AM PDT
Where do the wired kids go?
It's no secret that MySpace.com's popularity with teenage Web surfers has meant a loss to sites like Yahoo and AOL. But a closer look at Web traffic patterns shows that teenagers can be a fickle bunch, and the list of top teen sites can change like the weekly Billboard charts. There's a fresh crop of popular sites this year, while only a handful of last year's favorites are still hot.
Sure, Wikipedia, Google and Apple Computer's site are recognizable names. But others like Bebo, Memegen and Tagged.com aren't so well known to anyone older than 21.
There's little doubt that MySpace has a heavy reputation with the teen set. In fact, many of the new teen hot spots are designed to take advantage of MySpace's "ecosphere" rather than compete with it head on.
With good reason: From April 2005 to April 2006, the overall number of teen visitors (between the ages of 12 and 17) to MySpace grew from roughly 3 million to 7.8 million. That was up 162 percent, according to ComScore Media Metrix. (That doesn't account for MySpace's 14-year-old age minimum.)
In contrast, the number of teen visitors to Yahoo, still tops for the age group, dropped 1 percent over the year to 11.6 million, according to ComScore. AOL, whose Instant Messenger is the most popular among teens, lost 10 percent of its teen visitors, falling behind Yahoo this year for the first time, at 10.9 million visitors.
Of the major Web sites, only Google got a bump from teens in the last year; the number of teen visitors to Google jumped 24 percent to 10.7 million from April to April, according to ComScore.
CNET Networks, publisher of News.com, lost 19 percent of its teen audience year-over-year. It attracted just more than 3 million teens in April.
So who saw an increase? Wikipedia, the controversial and fast-growing open-source encyclopedia, drew 2.9 million teens in April 2006, up 221 percent from the same period a year earlier. (All figures compare unique visitors over a period from April 2005 to April 2006.)
No doubt teens can be a fickle and secretive bunch. But with the rise of MySpace, advertisers are starting to realize they need to keep a close eye on this cybersavvy demographic.
"The teen market is a hugely valuable market," said David Hornik, a venture capitalist with August Capital. "Brands want to get to consumers early, and teenagers are just starting to form lifelong opinions about everything from toothpaste to music. So there is lots of opportunity to make money on big communities of teenagers."
No other age group matches teens' enthusiasm for the Web--nor their use of broadband connections. Roughly 87 percent of the 12 to 17 age group is online, many at least twice a day, according to a recent Pew Internet and American Life study. That bests the activity of 25 to 29 year olds, which have an 85 percent penetration. And 49 percent of teens have high-speed connections at home--more than any other age group. That means it's easy for them to watch video, chat with friends and listen to MP3s while doing their homework.
Teens, of course, love their music. And MySpace benefits nicely from this passion because of the many independent bands that promote free MP3s on the social network. But other music sites are feeling the love too. Apple.com, for example, increased its teen visitor base by 68 percent to 3 million from April 2005 to April 2006, according to ComScore.
The ecosphere of MySpaceLike Google, MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites that provide support and services to teen subscribers. Sites with the biggest population of teens, including MyGen.co.uk, Coshed.com and Poqbum.com, help kids create profiles, layouts, graphics, games, icons and quizzes for MySpace blogs, and some other social networking sites, such as Xanga.com. And according to figures from Nielsen/NetRatings, these sites didn't register among the top 20 teen sites in April 2005.
Remember when passing notes in class was the best way to quiz friends on "What kind of vegetable are you?" and "Who will you marry?" Now sites like Memegen.net let teens post quizzes like "How Gangsta are you?" and "Are you hott?" (sic) on their personal blogs at Livejournal or MySpace.
Memegen.net claimed a spot as one of the top 20 sites among teens in April 2006 but didn't make the grade last year. More than 675,000 teens, or more than half its total visitors, visited the site in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Still, other teens are looking to newer, edgier social networks, now that MySpace has drawn the ire of parents and teachers.
Tagged.com, Bebo.com and MyYearbook.com are just a few of the social networking sites growing like weeds. Tagged.com, a virtual nobody last year, grew to half a million teen visitors in April, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Also a newcomer, MyYearbook mushroomed to 1 million visitors in the last year.
"MySpace has broader appeal. Now some teens want to be hipper," said Brian Fitzgerald, president of Gorilla Nation, one of the top teen properties, according to ComScore. Gorilla owns the Web site Quizilla, which lets kids create poems and fiction for their personal Web pages.
As he puts it, Quizilla builds "a community around creativity."
Send insights or tips on this topic to stefanie.olsen@cnet.com.
About the author
Stefanie Olsen covers science and technology for CNET News.com. In this series, she examines the young generation's unique immersion in the Web, cell phones, IM and online communities.
Tips and resources for parents
• Sit down with children when they're online, and make sure they visit only Web sites that are parent-approved. The American Library Association lists great sites for kids on its Web site.
• Use child-friendly search engines or one with parental controls. KidsClick, for example, is a Web search site by librarians.
• Establish a family e-mail account.
• Talk to children about their online activities and online friends because to them, the Internet is an extension of the real world.
• Establish rules for the Internet. Studies from Canada's Media Awareness group have shown that children respond positively to established rules.
Sorry, actually the 12 to 17 age group doesn't have any internet connectivity at all. Every single one of them get their connectivity from someone else.
What would have been accurate to say is that the 12 to 17 age group USE internet connectivity more than any other age group, but the reason that connectivity is in the house in the first place is because someone else paid for it.
The only reason my 12 and 15 year olds have broadband is because I wanted broadband. Believe me, if it was simply the case that they wanted a faster 'net connection, it wouldn't be there - and I believe that is the case in all but the few households where parents give in to every demand their kids make.
I give most parents more credit than that - at least with most things, I still can't understand the obsession with giving kids cell phones though.
When a school in NY banned students from bringing their cell phones, it wasn't the students that got up in arms, it was the parents. ***? Surely you'd think they'd be more concerned with making sure their kids are studying in school, rather than text messaging each other with answers, and effectivily negating any education their teachers might impart.
Anyway the idea that children have more 'net connections than any other age group is completely false.
Sorry, actually the 12 to 17 age group doesn't have any internet connectivity at all. Every single one of them get their connectivity from someone else.
What would have been accurate to say is that the 12 to 17 age group USE internet connectivity more than any other age group, but the reason that connectivity is in the house in the first place is because someone else paid for it.
The only reason my 12 and 15 year olds have broadband is because I wanted broadband. Believe me, if it was simply the case that they wanted a faster 'net connection, it wouldn't be there - and I believe that is the case in all but the few households where parents give in to every demand their kids make.
I give most parents more credit than that - at least with most things, I still can't understand the obsession with giving kids cell phones though.
When a school in NY banned students from bringing their cell phones, it wasn't the students that got up in arms, it was the parents. ***? Surely you'd think they'd be more concerned with making sure their kids are studying in school, rather than text messaging each other with answers, and effectivily negating any education their teachers might impart.
Anyway the idea that children have more 'net connections than any other age group is completely false.
In my ICT class last year, there were roughly thirty pupils. Of those thirty, twenty-eight had absolutely no clue about computers, the Internet, and so on, barring the software packages they've been trained to click buttons on, the surface of which they never see beneath. You do not need to worry about them circumventing your security.
The two of us who actually did have the capability to bypass the school's filters would sneer at anything the school admins decided to put in our path. We knew far more than they (MCSEs) did about the network they built and ran. But you shouldn't worry about us. We're the ones who understand what it means to have an interest in a subject, and want a qualification in it. We're the ones who completed all the work set in the first ten minutes of the lesson (anybody who's ever had the misfortune to be in a GNVQ ICT lesson will know this situation all too well) and were bypassing various school security systems out of sheer boredom.
The real question here is why you set up these filters in the first place. If you did it for the sheer joy of getting one over on the kids, then yes, you have a problem here.
If, however, you did it to stop kids being distracted from their work, there is nothing for you to worry about.
I am Twey, an open-source advocate of 16 years; I speak four human languages and can code fluently in assembler, C, C++, C#, Java, ECMAScript, PHP, Perl, bash, and DOS, if one can count the latter excuse for a shell as a scripting language. I am not your problem. Don't patronise me by trying to figure out a way to make your network, the workings of which I know better than you do, turn against me. Do not judge by age. Those with an interest in learning will defeat any barrier you succeed in establishing. Those without will never figure it out.
Welcome to the dark side of compulsory education.
In my ICT class last year, there were roughly thirty pupils. Of those thirty, twenty-eight had absolutely no clue about computers, the Internet, and so on, barring the software packages they've been trained to click buttons on, the surface of which they never see beneath. You do not need to worry about them circumventing your security.
The two of us who actually did have the capability to bypass the school's filters would sneer at anything the school admins decided to put in our path. We knew far more than they (MCSEs) did about the network they built and ran. But you shouldn't worry about us. We're the ones who understand what it means to have an interest in a subject, and want a qualification in it. We're the ones who completed all the work set in the first ten minutes of the lesson (anybody who's ever had the misfortune to be in a GNVQ ICT lesson will know this situation all too well) and were bypassing various school security systems out of sheer boredom.
The real question here is why you set up these filters in the first place. If you did it for the sheer joy of getting one over on the kids, then yes, you have a problem here.
If, however, you did it to stop kids being distracted from their work, there is nothing for you to worry about.
I am Twey, an open-source advocate of 16 years; I speak four human languages and can code fluently in assembler, C, C++, C#, Java, ECMAScript, PHP, Perl, bash, and DOS, if one can count the latter excuse for a shell as a scripting language. I am not your problem. Don't patronise me by trying to figure out a way to make your network, the workings of which I know better than you do, turn against me. Do not judge by age. Those with an interest in learning will defeat any barrier you succeed in establishing. Those without will never figure it out.
Welcome to the dark side of compulsory education.
I was from a relatively small town and I can remember when broadband was finally offered by the cable company and since the only computer in the house was in my room, my parents had gotten broadband for me.
You shouldn't generalize about the world based on you being a cheap/greedy parent.
P.S., I had a cell phone in high school and I can tell you parents give their children cell phones because they care and like the ability to contact them when they aren't at home.
I was from a relatively small town and I can remember when broadband was finally offered by the cable company and since the only computer in the house was in my room, my parents had gotten broadband for me.
You shouldn't generalize about the world based on you being a cheap/greedy parent.
P.S., I had a cell phone in high school and I can tell you parents give their children cell phones because they care and like the ability to contact them when they aren't at home.
I live in the Caribbean and most if not all secondary schools regulate the use of cell phones on the compound. Some schools do not allow it at all. Some of the challenges that arise besides texting answers are prank calls, bomb scares (forcing the school to be dismissed minutes after the call), connections with gang members outside the school, girls especially making arrangements to link up with men outside the school either during or after school and students being distracted by their 'boyfriends or girlfriends' whose call they might be expecting during the day. These are real issues and we cannot pretend they don't exist.
I recall the days when parents didn't rely on cell as much as they do now. Before, they used to call the school in order to contact their children. This encouraged accountability and transparency. For example,if a student skips school, how is a parent sure that his/her child is at school or not when they contact him / her on the cell phone. Many challenges have arisen following the cell phone boom.
I think its important to be realistic about how the the technological advances are affecting the present teenage generation. We live in a regulated society yet many say 'it's my right / i want freedom. I call it the Anything goes mentality. It is essential to not turn a blind eye to the negative effects of some of these changes. Though we appreciate the technology let's be responsible in what we promote and permit.
I live in the Caribbean and most if not all secondary schools regulate the use of cell phones on the compound. Some schools do not allow it at all. Some of the challenges that arise besides texting answers are prank calls, bomb scares (forcing the school to be dismissed minutes after the call), connections with gang members outside the school, girls especially making arrangements to link up with men outside the school either during or after school and students being distracted by their 'boyfriends or girlfriends' whose call they might be expecting during the day. These are real issues and we cannot pretend they don't exist.
I recall the days when parents didn't rely on cell as much as they do now. Before, they used to call the school in order to contact their children. This encouraged accountability and transparency. For example,if a student skips school, how is a parent sure that his/her child is at school or not when they contact him / her on the cell phone. Many challenges have arisen following the cell phone boom.
I think its important to be realistic about how the the technological advances are affecting the present teenage generation. We live in a regulated society yet many say 'it's my right / i want freedom. I call it the Anything goes mentality. It is essential to not turn a blind eye to the negative effects of some of these changes. Though we appreciate the technology let's be responsible in what we promote and permit.