Most teens use social media, but lack skills to protect themselves | Data

Over 30% of Indian rural teenagers who can't read can still browse the Internet, according to ASER Rural.

Among Indian teenagers in rural areas who can’t even read a paragraph of text, over 30% can still browse the Internet and close to 50% can find a video on YouTube, says the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Rural. The report provides several such insights into the digital prowess of high school and college students in India.

In the ASER survey, students in the 14-18 age group were asked to read a paragraph. Those who could read the words but not the sentences were said to belong to the ‘word level’. Those who could read the paragraph but not a bunch of paragraphs were categorised as belonging to ‘Grade 1 level’. Those who could read many paragraphs were said to belong to ‘Grade 2 level’. The survey was conducted in 28 districts from September to November, 2023.

Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of students aged 14-18 with different leading levels who could do digital tasks on a smartphone.

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Among those at the ‘word level’, more than 30% managed to find a YouTube video, browse information on the web, and set an alarm on their smartphone. Among those belonging to ‘Grade 1 level’, more than 55% could do all these tasks. Interestingly, most students, across reading levels, found it challenging to find travel time on Google Maps.

These conclusions were made for all the 28 districts put together. If the data are analysed at the district level, there are wide variations. For instance, more than 95% of teenagers in the rural parts of Ernakulam in Kerala were able to set an alarm on their smartphone, while less than 50% in Cooch Behar in West Bengal and Gariaband in Chhattisgarh knew how to do this. The India average was 66.4% (Chart 2A).

Chart 2A | The chart shows the share of teenagers who could set an alarm on a smartphone.