by Prof. Dr. Maggie Geuens, Marketing Competence Centre,
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.

Throughout history, hardly any technology has spread more rapidly than web technology. Although the Internet population has been frequently studied, children and teenagers have largely been neglected. This is surprising, the more since a US study among 8,500 16-22-year-olds points out that 47% of them was online in 2000, a number that is expected to soar to 62% by 2003 (Zapf, 2000).

The objectives of this study were twofold.

1. To investigate children's and teenagers' online search behaviour.

2. To explore which aspects teenagers like and dislike in a website.

To explore the latter, we asked teenagers to indicate how their dream site should look like. The conclusions of the study can be summarised as follows:

Online search behaviour of 6-12 year olds:

Online activities that 6-12 year olds often are engaged in are: playing games (93% of the sample), e-mailing (84%), downloading music (80%), taking a look at pictures (78%), chatting (76%), and searching for information on hobbies (56%).

Considering the type of site, game sites are visited by 76% of our 6-12 year olds sample. Other popular sites are music sites (55%), animal sites (35%), e-cards sites (25%), sites on TV channels and films and cartoons (25%), sites on books (20%), sites on mobile phones (19%). Furthermore, news sites are visited by 14% of this age category, while food sites attract only 3% of the children to their site.

Surfing the Net is the most preferred after school activity: 89% indicate that they like it. Game consoles are fancied by 85% of the 6 12 year olds, while listening to CDs and watching TV are about equally popular (83% likes it). 72% enjoy sports activities after school. Finally, reading comic strips and making phone calls are the least preferred after school activities with 49% and 48% respectively.

Kids scan a website, meaning that in order to keep kids on the site, the site should look attractive and not contain too many large text blocks. Although photos, colours, movies, etc. are appreciated, these elements should not slow the site down too much.
To find a new website, for example on candy, kids type www.candy.be instead of using search engines.

Online search behaviour of 13-18 year olds:

Concerning online activities preferred by 13-18 year olds, downloading music scores highest with an average of 88%. E-mail and chatting rank second with a score of 84% each, while e-greetings and games are also popular (76%). Searching for information on hobbies and printing pictures score 74% and 72% respectively. Making an online purchase and looking for information on products are least appreciated (average of 50%).

Among the online 13-18 years old population, Internet is the most preferred leisure activity, receiving an appreciation of 92%. It is preferred above listening to CDs (90%), the radio (82%) or watching TV (84%). Again, it is not surprising that youngsters who fill in an online questionnaire, like being online. Nevertheless, it is striking that it ranks number 1.

The highest appreciation scores of the above activities are reflected in the most visited sites: 68% of the 13-18 year olds visit music sites, 60% e-mail sites, 59% chat- and gaming sites and 46% e-greeting sites. It should be added that sports, games and radio sites are more popular in boys, while girls are more in for music, chatting and e-mail sites.

To find a new website, mainly offline advertising, links and search engines are used. Banners are really disliked since youngsters have problems closing them.

Dream site of 13-18 year olds:

For adults the main dimensions of a good website are entertainment, information and organisation (easy to find things on the site). By means of a slightly adapted questionnaire as used for adult populations, we discovered the following main dimensions of youngsters' favourite site: entertainment (surfing on the site is fun, I amuse myself on the site, the site is original), information (I can learn a lot on the site) and contact (It is fun to chat on the site). Unlike for adults, contact appeared as a separate dimension. Organisation, although not a separate dimension, is also important for youngsters, but merges with entertainment. Youngsters only can enjoy themselves on a site when the site is well organised.

Not all youngsters have the same opinion on what is important on a site. By means of a cluster analysis, the 12-18 year olds can be grouped into 4 segments: Gamers, Info searchers, Internet adepts, and Contact seekers. Gamers represent 12% of the online 13-18 year olds. They do not seem to value information or contact with other people. They frequently visit game-sites, and playing games is their most preferred online activity. The number of boys outweighs the girls.

The group of Info searchers (26%) is over represented by girls and by the 15-18 year olds. Info searchers often know very well what they are looking for before they start browsing the Internet. News and book sites are often visited, while game-sites are least frequently visited. They search more for information for school, on hobbies and products than the other groups. In contrast, sending e-mails and chatting are not their favourite activities.

Internet adepts (40%) show a very high appreciation of the Internet as a medium, and have been online for the longest time (three years). More boys than girls belong to this group, and they seem to enjoy several activities.

Contact seekers (22%) are primarily online to have contact with other people. They do so by emailing and chatting. Information seeking, in contrast, is not their favourite activity. This group is more frequently online than other groups and really values the Internet as a medium. As a way to discover new sites they often exchange web addresses with friends. Next to the Internet, they also keep contact with others by sms and making phone calls.

Survey sample

An online questionnaire was linked to different Kids & Teens web sites with a pop-up or a banner. All participants automatically participated in a contest related to the survey. In total, 4370 respondents replied, of which 2527 were between 6 and 12 years old and 1843 were between 13 and 18. Children and teenagers of different countries participated.

Conclusions

Kids often visit the same sites, and to discover new sites they often need help from parents. For teenagers, advertising surprisingly ranks high as a tool to discover new sites, but also links and search engines are used. Both kids and teenagers scan websites. Dull information, large text blocks or a slow site is enough for them to leave the site immediately. As is the case for adults, entertainment and information are important characteristics of a site. However, youngsters also want interaction and value contact possibilities. Unlike for adults, organisation of a site is linked to entertainment for teenagers, meaning that a badly organised site cannot be funny or entertaining. As is the case for adults, not all teenagers are alike. Some value everything, while others mainly want contact, information or entertainment.