KIM Study 2018 on media use by 6- to 13-year-olds published
Digitization is also well advanced in families with children. Almost all children (98%) potentially have the opportunity to use the Internet at home. A good two-thirds of all six- to 13-year-olds are among the Internet users according to their own statements. Among six- to seven-year-olds, a good third use the Internet at least rarely, and at the age of eight to nine, just under three out of five children are online. At the age of ten to eleven, four out of five children are Internet users, and among twelve to 13-year-olds, almost all children (94 percent) use online services. These are the findings of the KIM Study 2018 (Childhood, Internet, Media) of the Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest, which was published today.
When looking at regular (at least once a week) activities on the Internet, research via search engines (65%), sending WhatsApp messages (62%)and YouTube videos (56%)are the most frequently mentioned occupations of Internet users. Just under a third regularly listen to music via the Internet. In the course of a week, one in four uses Facebook or Wikipedia or sends e-mails. One-fifth (21%) are at least weekly Snapchat users, and 17 percent use Instagram regularly. Television shows are watched via the Internet by 16 percent, and twelve percent use Musical.ly (now TikTok). The use of social media offeringsis particularly relevant for older children. WhatsApp is of central importance in everyday life. This applies above all to children aged ten and over, with 73 percent of ten- to eleven-year-olds and 83 percent of twelve- to 13-year-old Internet users using WhatsApp on a daily basis (6-7 years: 17%, 8-9 years: 36%). All in all, one in three children surveyed said they used this messenger every day or almost every day.
The use of media does not only play a role in leisure time. Digital devices are also used at school, although this is currently still very sporadic. Around one in three students uses a conventional computer in class at least once a week (31%). Mobile devices such as cell phones or smartphones (16%) and notebooks or laptops (15%) are used even less frequently. One in ten students (11%) uses a whiteboard at least once a week. Tablet classes are also still the exception at present; according to the schoolchildren surveyed, tablets are used in class by only eight percent of students in the course of a week.
Overall, the results of the KIM Study 2018 show that, despite the highly dynamic nature of the media world as a whole, the everyday media lives of elementary school students are, on the whole, characterized by a high degree of stability. New forms of offerings and distribution channels for moving images or social media platforms, which are developing dynamically among young people, are usually only relevant for older children. Overall, television is still the strongest pillar in everyday media life, while online-based moving image use (e.g. YouTube) is gaining in importance. Especially from the age of around ten, the use of streaming services is increasing significantly, and the same applies to social media and messenger services.
The KIM (Kindheit, Internet, Medien - Childhood, Internet, Media) study series has been conducted by the Medienpädagogischer For-schungsverbund Südwest in cooperation with Südwestrundfunk since 1999. The representative study maps the media behavior of six- to 13-year-olds in Germany. For the KIM Study 2018, around 1,200 children and their main educators were surveyed in early summer 2018 about their media usage behavior.
The Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest is a cooperation of theLandesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg(LFK) and the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz(LMK). The study is being conducted in cooperation with Südwestrundfunk (SWR).