Here’s a sampling of the snapshot perspectives featured in the latest edition of YouthBeat.

• The majority of kids are surrounded by some form of electronics and technology, so most are born to become technology experts and often serve as the Chief Technology Officer in their homes.
• A significant number of girls are listening to music through their cell phones, while boys and teens in general are turning to satellite radio in greater numbers than before.
• Parents are less aware than they think about where kids are getting their music. Kids and tweens are buying music more from websites that sell CDs than parents are aware of, while kids of all ages claim to be buying more CDs in stores.
• CD and cassette players may be at the end of their life cycles in the youth market. Fewer kids are reporting that they use these hand-me-down machines, with iPods largely displacing other portable devices.
• Few tweens and teens are reading newspapers on a regular basis, although 60 percent of boys who say they read newspapers do crack open the sports section on a regular basis.
• Kids, tweens and teens go on the Internet often, and their usage increases with age. A whopping 80 percent of teens go online once per day or more, while 66 percent of tweens and 41 percent of kids do the same.
• Boys are far more likely than girls to visit free online gaming, toy, sports and trading sites, while girls are far more likely to sample the wide variety of Internet sites, including TV channels, search engines, online stores, weather sites, photo-sharing and gossip sites.
• Virtual world sites (Webkinz.com, Clubpenguin.com, Gaiaonline.com) are becoming more popular with kids, tweens and teens, with more visiting in the fall than during the summer. (This may be linked to the arrival of the holiday season as much as being influenced in the Northern U.S. by the arrival of winter weather.)
• Boys are more actively involved in video game system purchase decisions, but girls hold more sway when it comes to family purchases of digital cameras and camcorders.
• Middle school brings a sea change when it comes to cell phone usage. Relatively few kids (26 percent) own a cell phone, but the majority of middle schoolers (58 percent) own a cell phone and just three percent report that they “never” use their phones.

For additional information, please contact Brenda Hurley or Paul Metz by email at youthbeat@crresearch.com or call 312.828.9200.