China's youth heaviest mobile internet users

Teens and twenty-somethings around the world are embracing the mobile phone culture that has come to define their lives. Their phones are a gateway into their social lives and using them has become an integral part of the daily routine.

"Usage patterns vary greatly among youth throughout the world, demonstrating how culture, economy and age can all play a large part in mobile behavior. These factors affect device selection, payment and usage," said market researcher Nielsen in a new study on youth and cellphone usage published on January 11.

According to the study, Chinese youth are the heaviest mobile internet users while youth in the US can't stop sending emails.

73 percent of Chinese mobile users aged 15-24 said they used mobile internet in the last 30 days compared to only 48 percent of US youth and 46 percent of youth in the UK.

Less than one quarter of young people living in other European countries said they used mobile internet in the last 30 days.

Mobile internet usage was lowest in India and Brazil where less than 10 percent of young people used their mobile devices to access the internet in the last month.  

Saudi Arabia's youth downloaded the most ringtones and screensavers in the last 30 days and 15-24-year-olds in the US were the most likely to use their phone's email features.

Females were more likely than their male counterparts to send their friends text messages, except in India China and Saudi Arabia.

"Indian males ages 15-24 are twice as likely as their female counterparts to use text messaging and four times more likely to use picture messaging. China and Saudi Arabia also skew male when it comes to messaging, but by a more narrow margin," said Nielsen.

In a November 2010 talk on teens and mobile phone safety issues market researcher Pew Internet found that texting was the most popular feature on teens' cell phones, closely followed by photo-taking and sharing.

Pew Internet also found that teens living in households with the lowest incomes were the most likely to use their handset to go online.