UKE checked how children in Poland use mobile phones

Ten post dostępny jest także w języku: polski

Mobile phones are becoming an indispensable functional element in today’s world, even in the youngest age groups. According to a UKE study, already 79.4% of children in Poland own a mobile phone, and the majority (46.8%) start using their own device as early as at the age of 7-8.

98% of phones are smartphones

At the same time, practically the same number of parents (79.6%) admit that their child has a telephone. The same group, when asked about the reasons why their children do not have a mobile phone, 57.8% indicate that the device may have a negative impact on the child’s development. Another 36.3% believe that their child does not need to use the telephone, and 30.4% indicate the problem of contact with undesirable content.

However, in the youngest age category, when determining the possession of a mobile phone, we can actually talk about smartphones, because of all available devices (smartphones, traditional and simplified telephones), smartphones account for 97.7% of all devices.

Slight prevalence of subscription offers

Looking at the offers, 47% of mobile phone contracts are post-paid options. It is noteworthy that for 79.1% of the decision to choose a specific offer, parents had the deciding vote, compared to 2.5% for children.

Almost half of the respondents (48.5%) also declare that their average monthly bill for the mobile phone of their children is in the range of PLN 21-30. Only 12.3% believe that it is an expense above PLN 41 per month.

Different views of children and parents in the case of services

Interestingly, the most popular service for cell phones indicated by children in Poland is making voice calls and sending text messages. Use of these services is declared by 85.9% and 78.6% of respondents respectively. This is more indications than browsing the internet on the phone (65.2%), playing games (65.2%), using apps (53%) and even using social networking sites (52.4%). Parents have a slightly different opinion on this subject. According to them, the order is as follows: playing games (86.4%), making calls (82.7%), sending text messages (69.3%), using applications (61.6%), browsing the Internet (59, 3%) and using social networks (54%).

At the same time, the UKE survey shows that every tenth child using a smartphone uses premium services. Most often it concerns additional expenditure on games (52.2%) and applications (48.3%).