Statistics from the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) have indicated that the most popular smart phone application among Jamaica TEENs is messaging application, WhatsApp. Over the last few years, WhatsApp has emerged as one of the major applications used for contact worldwide, with the app amassing over one billion active users worldwide since its inception in 2009. The information from the OCA’s Adolescent Internet (Social Media) and Smart Phone Application Usage Survey, conducted in the latter part of last year and early this year used a national sample of 514 students aged 11-17 year-old across rural and urban Jamaica.

It is not surprising that 93.3 per cent of respondents said that they used WhatsApp the most, as these days even businesses now use the app. Facebook chat was second.

The study also revealed that the most used social media site by Jamaican TEENs is YouTube. 79.3% respondents said that they use the video-sharing site. Facebook was next with 75.1% of users while Instagram had 51.9% of users. 

TEENs posited various reasons why they use social media, the most popular of which were keeping up with existing friends and family, meeting new friends and viewing pictures and videos.

The OCA launched this study due to growing concerns that there are growing numbers of cyber crimes among Jamaican children. Based on the study, 87.6 per cent of Jamaican children have access to the Internet.