What do 11 and 12 year old boys and girls use smartphones for?

The moment of giving the first mobile phone to minors is a source of concern for many parents. Concerned about the risks associated with smartphone use, there are more and more initiatives that try to delay that moment. According to research, in the first year of Compulsory Secondary Education, at the age of 13-14, all students already have a mobile phone.

Aware of this situation, the Weablearner research group at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), dedicated to the analysis of education and technology, wanted to study what the children’s digital ecosystem is like a year before, in the last year of Primary. That is, what digital devices they use at 11-12 years old and what they use them for.

“It is an important age to investigate, since, although the configuration of their digital culture begins earlier, it is then when they begin to have their own mobile phone and when the greatest change occurs. Giving a smartphone has become a rite of access to a new stage. It represents in some way the leap to adolescence, since they are given the key to use social networks and, with it, the entrance to a parallel world. This is something that especially worries families and is. has also extended a point of view technophobe. Therefore, we wanted to analyze what the situation really is,” explains researcher Eneko Tejada.

356 male and female students from six sixth-grade public schools participated in the study. Two out of three say they have a mobile phone and a third say they already had one before the start of the course. Thus, according to Tejada, “it cannot be said that ownership and use of smartphones among boys and girls aged 11-12 is widespread today, but we know that it will be in the near future.”

Regarding their use, the study has shown that they use smartphones mainly to talk with family and friends: “Having a smartphone means starting to directly use social networks. Parents give a cell phone to their sons and daughters to communicate with them, to know where they are, etc. But they must realize that by offering a mobile phone they facilitate the jump to social networks, since they will not only use them to talk to their relatives. The data has shown that they also use it to interact with their friends. Therefore, they should take this into account when deciding when to give a smartphone to their sons and daughters,” explains Tejada.

Eneko Tejada. (Photo: Fernando Gómez / UPV/EHU)

Social networks are not your main center of interest

However, it emphasizes that boys and girls aged 11-12 are not very attracted to social networks whose function is not exclusively communicative. They also use those platforms, but not as much. They use them mainly to watch videos, mainly on YouTube, but they enter very little on Instagram and Tik Tok. “Social networks are not yet one of their main centers of interest and, unlike older students, they do not expose themselves too much. It cannot be said that they interact on these networks, since there are very few that generate content. Most of them limit themselves to watching other people’s content and they like short videos, which can be viewed quickly,” says Tejada.

Regarding use, the study reveals the existence of differences depending on gender. Girls mainly watch videos on their mobile devices, while boys play video games.

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country affirm that, although they have detected few risk factors, it is advisable to be cautious: “Strategic plans must be developed to promote safe and responsible use of the Internet, social networks and video games. And we must give guidelines to families to help them decide when to offer a smartphone to their daughters and sons.”

Eneko Tejada Garitano is a professor in the Department of Didactics and School Organization of the Faculty of Education of the University of the Basque Country. He teaches classes in both the Faculty degrees and the Master in Technology, Learning and Education. He is a member of the Weablearner research group and his main research field is educational technologies. In addition, he is coordinator of the UPV/EHU education magazine Tantak.

The study is titled “12-year-old students of Spain and their digital ecosystem: the cyberculture of the Frontier Collective.” And it has been published in the academic journal Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research. (Source: UPV/EHU)