Pew Report: Teens and Mobile Phones

April 20, 2010

To build tomorrow’s news audience, news providers must engage today’s youth. It’s obvious that cell phones are the media tool of choice for most teens—and they’re especially fond of text messaging.

New research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicates just how rampant teen texting has grown. Beyond texting, cell phones also have become an important tool to help low-income teens bridge the digital divide. In fact, much of how teens use cell phones is dictated by economics…

According to the Teens and Mobile Phones report, 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones (up from 45% in 2004). 72% of all teens (88% of teen cell users) use text-messaging. Contrast this to 2006, when just 51% of teens were texters in 2006. Also, more than half of teens (54%) send or receive text messages daily.

Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day. However, 22% of teens text just 1-10 times daily. Boys typically send/receive 30 texts per day; girls, 80.

The wealthier a teen’s family is (especially above $50,000 annual income), the more likely their phone will be on a family plan. Three-quarters of teen cell users have unlimited texting plans, and these teens typically send and receive 70 texts daily.

Teens from lower-income families are more likely to have prepaid plans or their own cell contract—often with limits on text messages and voice minutes. Teens on limted texting plans typically send/receive 10 texts a day, and teens who pay per message typically send/receive 5 texts per day.

Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to lower-income teens. From families earning $30,000 or less per year, 41% of teens report that they use their phone to go online. Nearly a third of these teens have no computer at home. 44% of black teens and 35% of Hispanic teens go online via cell phones to go online, versus only 21% of white teens.

Teens who pay the full cost of their cell phones on their own tend to be older and poorer—but they also tend to do more with their phones. In particular, they’re more likely to use their phone to go online (39%) than teens whose phones are covered by a family plan (26%). According to the report, this “suggests that as they grow more independent, teens use their resources to expand their use of the cell phone.”

However, some teens, say it’s too expensive to go online from their cell phone. Others report dissatisfaction with the mobile web interface, lor frustration with slow-loading pages.

More than half of text-using teens have gotten spam or other unwanted texts—but mostly these are not commercial advertisements, but harassment or pranks from other individuals. Teens detest unwanted texts so severely that they sometimes react by turning off their phones for hours at a time. According to the report, “This is noteworthy, considering turning the phone off is otherwise unthinkable for many teens”—a point worth considering for any opt-in SMS service aimed at teens that includes paid advertisements.