Children are more and more online

Internet is too often considered as a world for teenagers and adults. But there is an important market that is not taken into account enough: that of young children. According to Nielsen Online, in the US, the number of children who go online has significantly increased. In May 2009, in the US, 16 million children aged 2-11 went online, which represents 9.5% of the active American Internet users.
The number of hours that this group spends online also increased: from 7 h in May 2004 to 11 h in May 2009. This increase of 63% is way above the increase recorded by the rest of the population that spent “only” 36% more time online than five years ago.

Young boys and girls have a different behaviour, though: although there are nearly as many boys (5.1 million) as there are girls (5.2 million) online, both do have other habits. Boys, for instance, watch a lot more videos. And the fact that boys usually play with their toy soldiers, while girls play with their dolls, is also reflected on the Internet: boys go to the Pokémon site, while girls prefer Barbie’s.