Some Kids Chores Include Internet Duties

05/14/2007

Children aged 8 to 14 are adding Internet duties to their list of chores. According to "Surfin' on Mom's Turf: Cyber Chillin' With 8-14 Year-Olds," a report released by Stars for Kidz, 14 percent of kids have helped parents prepare their income tax return online.

"In this 8 to 14 age group, these kids are the first strong generation where they have had all these sophisticated levels of technology from childhood, and they function intuitively," said Adele Schwartz, research director at Stars for Kidz.

Fourteen percent of respondents helped parents find tax forms on irs.gov and got information from the Web site. Kids also pitched in on banking and online bill payment tasks. Additional chores given to kids include sharing pictures and e-mails with relatives (38 percent); looking up movie listings (38 percent); responding to invitations, party and vacation planning (36 percent each); and travel (36 percent); getting driving directions (35 percent).

"What we see is the kids who are computer competent are becoming pivotal sources of information and planning for the family," said Schwartz. "Kids think moms [parents] are clueless, while that may or may not be true, kids are quicker and they find [information online] easier."

Parents find assigning online duties to pre-teens and teens a "healthy outlet," according to Schwartz. "There is a life skills element here; I think kids are seeing there is an interesting way to run your life."

Extra curricular activities conducted by kids include downloading music, an activity of 66 percent of the cohort. Kids go online to play video games, and more than half of survey respondents go to social networking sites like Club Penguin or MySpace, even when their parents don't approve.

A quarter (26 percent) of kids average in excess of three hours online each day. Almost half (46 percent) of kids surveyed said their parents monitor and remain in control of time spent online. One quarter of kids have been caught doing something wrong on the Internet, and 20 percent of kids aged 8 to 14 say they have an e-mail account they keep secret from their parents.

About 77 percent of kids shop on the Internet. Almost 10 percent in the survey report said they have a credit card, though the number is self-reported. Another method of payment is gift cards. "Their greatest delight is that they love going online to spend, they love using gift cards online," said Schwartz.

The "Surfin' on Mom's Turf" study was conducted in two parts. Quantitative interviews with small groups of nine- and 10-year-olds and moms of children of the same age were conducted from January through March. The focus groups helped with attitude and behavior and aided in the formation of a 10-question online survey, the second component of the study. The online survey was taken by 6,064 children aged 8 to14.

Source: www.clickz.com
May 14,2007