NEW YORK — A new report, “Kids on the Go: Mobile Usage by U.S. Teens and Tweens,” to be released by Nielsen Mobile, a service of the Nielsen Co., here on Dec. 14, found that 35% of “tweens,” defined as children between the ages of eight and 12, own a mobile phone. Five percent of these owners access the Internet from their phone each month. Regarding cross-media behavior of tweens, Nielsen reports that tweens spend less time surfing the Internet than their teen counterparts. In this report, 48% of U.S. tweens said they spend less than one hour per day online. When they are online, 70% of tweens use the Internet for gaming. Comparatively, 81% of U.S. teens say they spend one hour or more per day online, with email being the most pervasive online activity for this age group. “Tweens use their mobile phones, and media in general, in very unique and important ways,” said Jeff Herrmann, vice president of Mobile Media for Nielsen Mobile. “Marketers and media executives need to understand these ‘digital natives’ as they mature and reshape the way we all think about new and traditional media.”

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