Young people in Switzerland mainly use their phones to access messaging and social networks, or to surf the Internet.
Young Swiss people are spending more time on their mobile phones than two years ago.
KEYSTONE
Nearly five hours on weekends or three hours on weekdays: that’s the average time young Swiss people spend on their smartphones and on the Internet every day, according to a study. The phenomena of cyberbullying are also on the increase.
Young Swiss people are “intensive daily users of their telephone and the Internet”, according to the sixth edition of the JAMES study (Young people, activities, media – Swiss survey), carried out by Swisscom and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. applied (ZHAW). A quarter of adolescents have already experienced cyberstalking.
Young Swiss are spending more time on their mobile phones than two years ago, their press release said on Tuesday. For example, in 2020, phone and internet use increased by two hours per day on weekends compared to 2018 and by over forty minutes per day on weekdays.
The study, carried out every two years since 2010, interviews nearly 1,000 young people aged 12 to 19 from the three major linguistic regions. This sixth edition was carried out during confinement, which may have influenced the results, in particular on the use of streaming platforms, the statement said.
Three-quarters of households including teenagers have a subscription to a streaming service for movies and series, up from 38% in 2016. Music and video game streaming services have also increased.
There are gender differences in phone use, according to the study. Girls use their phones more to communicate and listen to music or take pictures. For boys, it’s mostly about consuming online games and videos. Nearly a quarter of underage players access games that are normally prohibited to them because of their age, the study indicates.
A quarter of young people already cyberbullied
Young people mainly use their phones to access messaging and social networks, or to surf the Internet, but these two uses tend to overlap. About 90% of teens surveyed have a profile on Instagram and Snapchat.
TikTok is more and more popular. Three quarters of young people now have an account, against only 37% in 2018. On the contrary, the use of Facebook is falling. If the social network was still at the top of the polls in 2014 with 79% of 12-19 year olds declaring that they used it regularly, they are only 14% in 2020.
A quarter of the young people surveyed have already been victims of cyberstalking and one in ten has been a victim between the ages of 12 and 13. Nearly half of the young people questioned have already been contacted via the internet by a stranger who expressed unwanted sexual intentions, an increase of 19% since 2014. This is the case for 55% of the girls questioned and 28% of the boys.
Posted today at 09:16-
