Interestingly, boys and girls were equally likely to use smartphones for education, but boys (78.8%) were more likely than girls (73.4%) to use for social media. Kerala stood out, more than 80% of children using smartphones for education and children of more than 90% for social media, reflecting high digital literacy levels of the state.
Based on survey of more than 6.4 lakh children in 605 rural districts in India, survey conducted by NGOs, highlights the increasing penetration of digital equipment in rural homes.
For the first time, ASER specifically included a section on digital literacy for children between the age of 14–16 years. This section showed self-reported questions on the use, ownership and use of smartphones, with one-to-one assessment of basic digital skills.
Access to smartphone
About 90% of children in the age group of 14-16 have access to smartphones with near-brahmand, in which they said that they have a smartphone at home. However, only 82.2%of these people know how one is used with a remarkable difference between boys (85.5%) and girls (79.4%). States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh lagged behind both reach and purpose.
ASER data also highlighted the rapid increase in availability of smartphones in rural India. In 2018, 36% of rural homes had smartphones, which increased by 74% in 2022 and now 84%. In contrast, the ratio of children aged 14–16 years increased from 19% to 31% this year with a smartphone in 2022.
Smartphone ownership
While ownership in this age group is low, it increases with age. According to the report, boys dominate ownership data. “In children who can use a smartphone, 27% of the 14-year-old children and 37.8% of the 16-year-old children reported their own phones. Also, a large penis owned by the smartphone The difference is -36.2% of boys as boys as boys as boys have a large gender difference as reported in the report.
Use pattern
The use of smartphones varies greatly between educational and social activities. While 57% of children reported using smartphones for educational purposes, 76% used them for social media. Boys were more likely to reach social media (78.8%) than girls (73.4%). In Kerala, more than 80% of children reported using smartphones for educational activities, while more than 90% used them for social media.
Digital security awareness
The report also assessed awareness about basic online safety measures in children using social media. Encouraged, 62% knew how to block or report the profile, 55.2% knew how to make the profile private, and 57.7% knew how to change the password. However, boys consistently demonstrated more awareness about these characteristics than girls.
Digital skill evaluation
On the survey day, 70.2% of boys and 62.2% girls brought a smartphone (their own or borrowed), which was to complete digital tasks. These tasks included setting an alarm, browsing for specific information, and detecting and sharing a YouTube video.
More than three-fourths of children successfully completed these tasks, with more than 90% of people located a YouTube video, which are managed to share it through a messaging platform. However, gender inequalities remained, boys improved girls in every task. The widest difference was in installing an alarm, with 81.5% of boys successful compared to 72.4% of girls.
Interestingly, in southern states like Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, girls showed regional progress in these digital skills either matching or improved boys, reducing gender differences.
According to the report, in 2018, about 90% of rural homes had simple mobile phones and 36% were smartphones. In 2022, smartphone houses had exceeded 74% and this year, it has increased by 84%. While the percentage of children accessing smartphones at home is close to saturation, the ratio of children between the age of 14–16, who owns the smartphone, has increased from 19% to about 31% within a year.
“The main use of the smartphone during the epidemic period was of a carrier of texts, worksheets and videos, which was replaced for textbooks. Virtual training sessions also became common. As the epidemic had gone away, digital skills that had gone away That was learned during the continuous period, which was learned during the continuous period, although some practices became less important and began to create a new enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, “the report states.
(Tagstotransite) smartphone (T) Social Media (T) Digital Media Literacy (T) ASER 2024 (T) ASER Survey (T) Adolescents using the annual status of the education report