Six out of 10 Turkish children have smart phones: Study

ISTANBUL

Fifty-nine percent of children aged between six and 15 in Turkey use smart phones according to a recent survey undertaken by market research company GfK.

The survey also revealed 42 percent of Turkish children in this age group own a tablet and 44 percent have computers, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Aug. 22.

The company surveyed 161 parents and asked them about whether their children owned gadgets such as a smart phone, computer or tablet.

According to the research, 41 percent of children have social media accounts. Of this figure, 85 percent are Facebook users, 68 percent are Instagram users and 36 percent have a YouTube channel.

Seventy-one percent of the surveyed parents said they checked their children’s social media accounts and monitored with whom their kids were in contact.

Seventy-eight percent of surveyed mothers said they believed their children were using social media accounts to watch various videos, whereas this figure was 53 percent of surveyed fathers.

Eighty-five percent of surveyed parents said they believed their children were using social media accounts to communicate with friends. This was followed by the belief that children utilized social media accounts to watch videos (66 percent of parents), to share videos and photographs (64 percent), to play games (56 percent), and to do homework and to serve educational purposes (42 percent).