AVG DIGITAL DIARIES - A LOOK AT HOW TECHNOLOGY AFFECTS US FROM BIRTH ONWARDS

Since November 2010, AVG has been running a regular series of ten-country studies called AVG Digital Diaries. Starting with infants aged 0-2, each stage has looked at how the Internet has affected the development of different age groups. A summary of the key results for each phase are as follows:

Digital Births (ages 0-2)

Uploading ante-natal scans, giving children an online album from birth, and in some cases even creating email addresses for babies - todays parents are increasingly building a digital footprint for their children from the moment they are born. 81% of children under two currently have some kind of digital dossier or footprint, with images of them posted online. In the US that rises to 92% while for the EU5 the figure is 73%. Though the average digital birth of children happens at around six months, a third (33%) of children have information and photos online within weeks of being born. In the UK, 37% of newborns have an online life from birth, whereas in Australia and New Zealand the figure is 41%.

A quarter (23%) of children have had their pre-birth scans uploaded to the Internet. This figure is higher in the US, where 34% have had antenatal scans posted online, while in Canada the figure is even higher at 37%. Fewer parents share scans of their children in France (13%), Italy (14%) and Germany (15%). Likewise only 14% of parents share baby scans online in Japan. Seven percent of babies and toddlers have an email address created for them by their parents and five percent have a social network profile.

Digital Skills (ages 2-5)

Small children today are more likely to navigate with a mouse, play a computer game and increasingly operate a smartphone than swim, tie their shoelaces or make their own breakfast. More small children can play a computer game than ride a bike. 58% of children aged 2-5 know how to play a 'basic' computer game. For the UK and France that jumps to 70%. Even 44% of 2-3 year olds have the ability to play a computer game. By comparison, 43% of kids 2-3 can ride a bike More kids aged 2-5 can play with a smartphone application (19%) than tie his / her shoelaces (9%). Almost as many 2-3 year olds (17%) can play with a smartphone application as 4-5 year olds (21%) More small children can open a web browser (25%) than swim unaided (20%) There is no tech gender divide between young boys and girls. As many boys (58%) as girls (59%) can play a computer game or make a mobile phone call (28% boys, 29% girls) Mothers aged 35 and over are slightly better at teaching their kids 'life skills.' For example 40% of toddlers with mothers aged 35+ can write their own name compared with 35% of toddlers with mothers aged 34 or younger European children aged 2-5 lead their US counterparts in knowing how to make a mobile phone call (44% Italy vs 25% for the US), playing a computer game (70% UK vs 61% US) and operating a computer mouse (78% France vs 67% US)

Digital Playground (ages 6-9)

Most 6-9 year olds and almost half 6-7 year olds spend more than two hours a week online. The average time spent online varies from 4.2 hours in the UK to 2.4 hours in Germany Over one in five (22%) young children now uses email, in Australia the figure is as high as 28%. Over one in eight 6-9 years uses Facebook (NB, does not mean they have a profile) in the US it is 16%. Japan is the only country where half of 6-9 year olds dont use some form of online communications tool. Almost half (47%) of 8-9 year olds now talk to their friends online. On balance, parents of children that do talk to friends via the Internet feel that this has a positive impact on their social skills.

Digital Maturity (ages 10-13)

By the time they are eleven, a majority of children in the major industrialised nations, including the five leading European Union countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) have reached digital maturity, graduating onto mainstream social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

In the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and France a majority of parents with eleven year olds say their kids are accessing mainstream social networks. In Germany a majority access them at 12, while in Italy and Spain, digital maturity starts as young as 10. Only Japan bucks the trend with few kids being present on these sites. When asked who knows the most about the Internet in your household, more than seven out of 10 mothers and fathers (72%) said they were the most knowledgeable. By comparison, less than one in 10 (8%) said their 10-13 year old knew the most.

Fathers were by far the most likely to think of themselves as online experts, despite evidence that shows most major social networks are female dominated. Overall, nine in 10 (87%) Fathers surveyed thought they knew best, while barely one in 20 (5%) felt their kids were better informed.

Digital Coming of Age (ages 14-17)

Sixteen and seventeen year olds can in many countries leave school to enter employment, get married and drive a car. Yet many of those 17 year olds arent fully trusted on the Internet by their parents, with 4/10 secretly accessing their Facebook accounts without them knowing. AVGs research indicates that many parents are concerned both about what their teenage children do online and about their future digital footprints. In particular a majority of parents in the USA (61%), Spain (61%), Italy (54%) and Canada (54%) admit to secretly accessing their teens Facebook account without them knowing. Across all 11 countries, 44% admitted to doing this with mothers (49%) more likely to check up on their teenage kids than fathers (39%). Though 48% of parents of 14 year old children access their kids Facebook accounts, a significant (40%) number of parents of 17 year olds still do so. In the USA, almost 6/10 parents with a 17 year old child (59%) have at some point gone into their Facebook account without them knowing. Parental suspicion of what their kids do online has led to many being worried about what impact their childs digital footprint will have on them in the future. A majority of parents in Spain (65%) and Italy (57%) fear that what their teens post on social networks now will harm their college, career or dating prospects in the future. In the US (40%) and Australia (42%) around 4/10 are concerned, while UK parents are somewhat more relaxed with only 30% being worried about their teens digital footprint.

Digital Baggage (Graduates and new job seekers, ages 18-25)

Over one in eight young adults aged between 18 and 25-years-old are posting online in anger about their boss or workplace and therefore putting their jobs at risk. With the typical 20 year old now having a digital footprint that spans a decade or more, AVG looked at the type of digital baggage young adults entering the workplace were acquiring, and whether this might adversely affect their career prospects. 13% of young adults admit to having had a bad day at work where they posted something abusive about either their boss or company. This includes 11% of UK 18-25 year olds, 13% of American young adults, 16% in Spain and 18% in Italy Yet at the same time, most young adults dont restrict what their work colleagues can access. 60% do not filter posts that Facebook friends who are also workmates can see. One in four (25%) even have their boss as their Facebook friend, a figure which increases to 30% in the UK while in the US one in three (33%) young adults are Facebook friends with their boss Over a quarter (27%) admit to there being inappropriate photos of them online, while almost half (46%) say that there are photos on the Internet of them that they wish they could remove. In the UK this increases to 55% However less than half (43%) have done something as basic as an online audit where theyve gone through and cleared any potentially embarrassing content Only 8% of young adults across all ten countries have been to a job interview where they were quizzed about something they posted online. In the US however, this increases to 13%

Digital Work Life (working adults)

More than half of adults (53 per cent) believe privacy in the workplace has been eroded with the proliferation of social media. The final and seventh stage of AVG Digital Diaries found that the mis-use of social media has infiltrated the workplace with often negative effects on employees privacy, forcing many to switch off or limit their use of social networking sites. One in ten respondents discovered secret discussions about them online were initiated by colleagues using social media, and 11 per cent have had embarrassing photos or videos taken at a work event and uploaded onto social media sites. This is as high as 19 per cent in Spain and 14 per cent in the UK. A small number of all adults (6 per cent) even found themselves subjected to unwanted romantic advances through online media, and in the US this number rose to ten per cent of all adults. Of those that agreed social media has eroded their privacy at work, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) now avoid posting on social networks that have caused them privacy concerns, while 23 per cent limit their posts. More than half (53 per cent) are more careful about what they post.

AVG Digital Diaries looks at respondents in the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand. For further information, see avgdigitaldiaries.com