What's on the Minds of the Nation's Ten Year Olds?

What's on the Minds of the Nation's Ten Year Olds?

LONDON, September 26/PRNewswire/ --

- AOL Study Offers Insight Into Their Online and Offline Worlds and Their
Views of the Future

Houses that float above the ground, robot teachers, and discovering
comedian Peter Kay in a time capsule are among UK ten year olds' predictions
for the future. For now, they're happy playing outside, having fun with
computer games, and dreaming of emailing David Beckham.

More than 500 ten year olds recently took part in the nationwide 'Now We
Are Ten' study by AOL UK to mark the company's 10th birthday this Autumn. The
study focuses on the first generation to be born in the Internet era,
offering a fascinating insight into their online and offline worlds and their
views of the future. It was conducted by Quaestor Research and Marketing
Strategists.

Karen Thomson, Chief Executive and Chairman of AOL UK, commented: "It's
fascinating to see how ten year olds are embracing technology and how excited
they are about how it will impact the lives of future generations. Born in
1995, they have grown up in a world where high-tech devices and the Internet
are omnipresent and they appear to be completely comfortable with everything
from email to games consoles as a result - some are so savvy that their
parents turn to them for advice!"

"As a mum, I'm particularly pleased to see that children still want a
balance in their lives. They're making the most of technology and the
Internet, but not at the expense of more traditional pastimes such as playing
outside and going swimming. And they're also using the Web to help with their
homework and stay in touch with friends and family."

Loving technology...but it can't beat going out to play

- Despite more than three quarters of ten year olds (76 per cent) having
access to a PC at home, they have by no means abandoned the great outdoors
for the mouse. 'Playing outside' and 'Watching TV' are their favourite
pastimes, both cited by over half of ten year olds (54 per cent), followed by
'Playing sports' and 'Playing computer games' (each with 41 per cent), 'Going
to friends' houses' (31 per cent), 'Playing on bikes' (27 per cent) and
'Going swimming' (25 per cent). 'Going on the computer' and 'Going on the
Internet' do not yet feature in their top five pastimes, but are more popular
than playing with pets, shopping, going to the cinema, texting friends and
even having a lie-in

- Footballers and pop stars would be the most fascinating "e-pals" for UK
ten year olds. Given the opportunity to have any celebrity's email address,
David Beckham was the most popular choice, followed by Britney Spears,
Eminem, McFly and Wayne Rooney

- Ten year olds are more likely to go online at school than at home. 80
per cent of those polled use the Internet at school, compared to 70 per cent
at home, 43 per cent at friends' houses, and 16 per cent at libraries

- Having broadband at home appears to encourage more frequent use of the
Internet among children, with nearly a quarter of "broadband kids" (22 per
cent) going online every day compared to only four per cent of those with
narrowband

- Favourite Web sites include Google, CBBC, and football club sites.
After "googling", which nearly three quarters of ten year olds do when they
go online, the most popular Web activities are finding information for school
projects (68 per cent) and playing games online (67 per cent)

- Over a quarter of respondents (28 per cent) use email to stay in touch
with friends and family and it looks like handwritten thank you letters could
soon be a thing of the past, with over half of ten year olds saying they
would send an email instead

- Gaming is very popular, with 80 per cent of ten year olds having access
to a games console such as PlayStation or Xbox at home. In comparison,
digital cameras and MP3 players are yet to make significant in-roads into the
home lives of ten year olds, with only 22 per cent and 13 per cent
respectively having access to them

- Nearly half of ten year olds (48 per cent) have the time they spend on
the Internet restricted by their parents, whilst 66 per cent say that their
parents have rules about what they may and may not do online

- Tech-savvy kids are becoming home-based helpdesks, with the parents of
over a third of the children surveyed (39 per cent) having asked for their
help when using the Internet. "Broadband parents" are more likely to turn to
their children for technical advice than their narrowband counterparts - 49
per cent compared to 33 per cent

- When asked who they thought invented the Internet as we know it today,
the majority of the ten year olds polled did not want to hazard a guess. The
most popular suggestions among those who did are 'scientists', including
Thomas Edison and Einstein, and Bill Gates or Microsoft. God, AOL, Alan
Sugar, Google and The Queen are also cited, with even a few mentions of
Robbie Williams and the ubiquitous Crazy Frog

Excited about the future

- The most popular item for UK ten year olds to put in a time capsule for
their peers to discover in the future is a football. Technology follows close
behind, with PlayStation taking second place in the list of contents. And UK
kids clearly love Peter Kay! The Phoenix Nights comedian is the only
celebrity mentioned as being an 'item' they would like to place in a time
capsule to reflect their lives in 2005

- Forget Maths, English and French - tomorrow's school curriculum will
include lessons in Information Technology, Building Robots, Alien Languages
and Celebrities. According to 37 per cent of those polled, teachers will be
robots in the future, whilst nearly a quarter (24 per cent) think that
teachers will still be human but with interchangeable microchips for
different subjects

- TV and film clearly influence children's views of transport in the
future, with 41 per cent believing people will travel by "hoverboards" (a
skateboard without wheels that hovers above the ground) in the future, over a
third predicting that cars will fly, and 29 per cent envisaging people
wearing jet packs to get from A to B

- More than half of the ten year olds polled (55 per cent) imagine that
people will live in tardis-style houses and 38 per cent envisage that the
home of the future will float above the ground

Socially aware

- Protecting the environment and reducing poverty should be taken more
seriously in order to make the world a better place in the future, according
to ten year olds. Of the children polled, 67 per cent said that their primary
concern was the environment, followed by 66 per cent citing poverty

- 53 per cent want to see terrorism combated and 51 per cent want the
focus to be on reducing crime

- 41 per cent said they would like to improve healthcare and food whilst
less than a third (31 per cent) mentioned that they would like to see
improvements in education

- The timing of the study, which took place in July, has no doubt
contributed to heightened social awareness among ten year olds, with the
children's responses clearly influenced by Live 8, the G8 Summit, and the
London bombings

Thomson added: "In the years since AOL launched in the UK, technology and
the Internet have evolved at breakneck pace. It's clear from the children's
predictions for the future that they expect ever-increasing innovation and
it's up to the industry to deliver this."

Notes to Editors

AOL UK's 'Now We Are Ten' study of ten year olds was conducted by
Quaestor Research and Marketing Strategists (www.quaestor.co.uk) in July
2005.

The research included both qualitative and quantitative methods. The
qualitative research was conducted with 13 friendship pairs and the
quantitative research was carried out through face-to-face interviews with
515 ten year olds in the UK. All the children taking part in the study were
born in 1995, the year that AOL UK launched as a company. All 515
participants were selected at random and are nationally representative.

The full findings of the study can be found at www.aol.co.uk/ten.
Selected participants in the study are available for interview and various
photographs of ten year old twins, as well as futuristic cartoons, are
available on request.

Observations on the study

The following people are available for comment on the 'Now We Are Ten'
study:

Matt Whyman - Matt is a popular magazine and Internet agony uncle and has
also written several advice books for young people, including the bestselling
XY series for boys. He has written numerous health awareness campaigns, for
Radio One, The Health Education Authority and Brook Centres, as well as
advising the Government's Chief Medical Officer on youth issues.

Rob Mansfield, AOL UK - Rob oversees the content on AOL's popular Kids
and Teens channels, which includes music, chat, homework help, games, and
advice. Prior to AOL, Rob worked on a variety of youth magazines for 10
years, including Young Telegraph, Looks, Disney's Big Time, Mizz, Bliss and
More.

Caroline Bond, Quaestor - Caroline began her career after an English
degree at Oxford and has worked in the research industry for 19 years. Having
established her child/youth and media credentials in London, Caroline joined
Quaestor Research and Marketing Strategists and is currently Qualitative
Director.

About AOL

AOL is the leading online interactive services provider to the UK, with
more than 2.3 million members, including more than one million on AOL
Broadband. AOL offers a range of services in the UK, including dial-up,
broadband and voice, as well as unrivalled content and community for all the
family.

Members spend more than one hour a day online on average, enjoying access
to more than 20 channels of online content, from Entertainment and News to
Parenting, Shopping and Money, as well as email and the Internet.

The AOL Internet service and AOL Talk are provided to UK subscribers by
AOL Europe Services SARL, a company in the AOL group based in Luxembourg. AOL
(UK) Limited is part of AOL Europe, a business unit of America Online Inc.,
which is the world's leading interactive services company with more than 27
million members worldwide. America Online Inc. is a division of Time Warner
Inc., a leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include
interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television
networks and publishing.

Source: AOL UK

Please contact Miki Watson or Laura Wood at Golden Goose PR on +44-(0)207-223-4488 or email miki@goldengoosepr.com / laura@goldengoosepr.com for further information, including regional breakdowns

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