Opinion
What we learned from kids and their best friends KidsKnowBest is a leading kids digital media agency, and in this month’s column, Lydia Mossahebi looks at kids’ friendships; how they can filter and moderate their ideas and behaviours, and impact on who kids are and who they want to be.
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t KidsKnowBest we’re always searching for new ways to understand kids better, so we recently embarked on an extensive new research study, FriendsKnowBest, to discover the social landscape of this generation. The aim was to find out how kids define themselves, the values and interests that are important to them and how they see their place in the world. We wanted kids’ voices and opinions at the heart of this project. It’s always been our approach at KidsKnowBest, and it was imperative that it needed to be kids themselves to tell us who they are and what their world looks like.
What makes your best friend unique? We wanted kids to tell us what makes them unique in their own words, but we knew this wouldn’t be easy. What we do know is that no one knows you as well as your best friend, so we spoke to 10,000 kids aged 6-16 globally, over a three-month period to January 2021, asking them the question through a combination of online polls, surveys and remote interviews. It’s given us first-hand insight into trends of behaviours and interests.
Kids and their friends As we reviewed the results, we began to identify the values that unite kids in each age group. When it comes to friendships, all kids value kindness. For 5–6 year-olds, it was important that their best friend offers them and other people something. Kids we spoke to told us the importance of their friend being kind to other people, playing with them and even making them sandwiches. For 7-10 year-olds, we saw more focus on hobbies to bind friendships together as kids build confidence in themselves. We also saw the growing importance of digital as a space for friendship. We know these kids are digital natives, now quite a complex area which encompasses everything they do online from chatting, gaming to watching and sharing content. 45% of kids find social media a useful way to build stronger relationship bonds, whether that’s through messaging on WhatsApp, sharing content on TikTok or publishing photos on Instagram. We found 34% of UK kids aged 6-10 play games online with their friends, and 1 in 4 say they have a best friend they made online, largely through gaming
platforms like Roblox and Minecraft. Both these stats show how important gaming has become as a facilitator to kids’ socialising.
Areas to keep an eye on As we’ve started to glean insight from this research, I think there are four stand-out trends worth keeping an eye on.
Friend viewing
Lydia Mossahebi editorial director, KidsKnowBest.
Co-viewing with families was huge in 2020 as lockdown kicked in. Families went back to making appointments to view and watch together, turning blockbuster cinema smashes into family-movie-nights. Looking into 20212022, I think we’ll see this continue with more co-viewing among friends. The success of films like Trolls 2 shows kids are searching for content they can enjoy and talk about, whether that’s on Disney, Netflix, YouTube or linear TV. They still want big hits and shared experiences, allowing content to help build their friendships. There’s a real opportunity here for a good solution to let kids share their passions and enjoyment for content digitally.
Being in the moment The shift to slowed down experiences in 2020 saw a rise in board games, puzzles and crafts. In 2021-2022, brands and content experiences would do well to help kids be more in the moment, giving them opportunities to immerse themselves in an activity with no distractions. We’ve seen mindfulness apps such as Calm and Headspace take off in the grown-up space and Moshi Sleep making headway with kids. In a recent industry insights series we ran at KidsKnowBest, our CSO Pete Robinson spoke to Meagan Rothschild from ABCMouse.com who identified that kids finding opportunities to slow down from being entertained or learning and just being in a peaceful moment would be a big trend.
Being useful Alongside kids doing things that are fun, they were also doing things that had a benefit. Whether that was looking after chickens or cooking omelettes, kids weren’t waiting for stuff to come and engage them, they were being resourceful to seek out useful stuff they can do themselves. We know that attainment and progress is a motivator to engage with experiences over prolonged periods. Meaningful relationships with brands, content and experiences will continue to take share of time in
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the future; for brands, it’s about how to help kids get better and more immersed in something they are passionate about.
Being with friends Kids love their friends and in 2020 they really missed them. Friendships are hugely important to kids’ development; they filter and moderate their ideas and behaviours, and impact on who kids are and who they want to be. It has never been more important to do what we can as an industry to help kids spend time, either physically or digitally, with their best friends. The full KidsKnowBestFriends report will be published this spring. To find out more and sign up, get in touch with Jack Day -
jack@kidsknowbest.co.uk.
www.kidsknowbest.co.uk.
