[London, ENGLAND] According to a report from
ad agency Young & Rubicam,
published Friday, British teenagers make more use
of the Internet than their counterparts in the
rest of Europe and the United States.
The survey found that 57 percent of young people
aged 7-16 in the U.K. were already online, while
the number of teenage shoppers is set to rise from
1.9 million in 1999 to 5.9 million in 2002.
However, more than half of Britain’s teenage
surfers (54.8 percent) believe the the Internet
is “too American.” Oddly enough, 28.6 percent of
Americans agree with them.
“Way, way, way too much advertising on every
Web page,” one teenager is quoted as saying.
“All the best sites are American, and lots of
them assume that everyone who goes to the site
is from America,” says another.
Despite adverse comments about the Web’s American
flavor (flavour!) however, teens in the U.K. clearly
have a lot more in common with those in the U.S. than
with teens in Continental Europe.
The survey reports that 71.2 percent of U.K. teens and
78.6 percent of U.S. teens said the Internet has
“greatly affected the way they shop.” By contrast,
only 44.4 percent of teens in Continental Europe made
the same admission.
In what is quite a complex and wide-ranging survey,
British teens are described as having a high opinion
of Internet users, referring to them as “clever”,
“friendly”, “cool”, “trendy”, and “rich”.
In the 15-34 age group, Britons were revealed as being
twice as likely as those in the older, 35-54 age group
to want to take part directly in the Internet industry.
The survey even covers the Internet’s impact on language,
noting how new types of shorthand have appeared among
younger users. In particular it mentions the huge craze
for text messaging on mobile devices in the U.K., where
users sent an estimated 500 million messages to each
other between January 1999 and May 2000.
Ownership of mobile phones among British youths in the
11-16 age group currently stands at 25 percent — nearly
1 million users.
The survey may be purchased online from
The Intelligence Factory,
the knowledge and futuring company in the Y&R Group.
