66m of Indian Internet users are children of 5-11 age

Image used for representational purpose. Photograph: Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters.

An estimated 66 million children aged between 5 and 11 years in India access internet on devices of their family members, constituting about 15 per cent of the country's active internet userbase, as per IAMAI. 

Overall, India had 451 million internet users at the end of March this year, second only to China in terms of monthly active internet users, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in its report titled 'India Internet 2019'. 

"Of the 451 million monthly active users, 385 million are over 12 years of age and 66 million are in the age bracket of 5 to 11 years, who access internet on the devices of family members...two-thirds of internet users in India are in the age group of 12-29 years," it added. 

The report pointed out that with internet penetration level at only 36 per cent, "there is still much headroom for growth". 

In terms of absolute numbers, urban India with 192 million users had almost the same number of users as the rural parts of the country. 

NCT of Delhi registered the highest internet penetration, followed by Kerala, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, it said. 

Among the cities, Mumbai and Delhi topped the list with 11.7 million and 11.2 million internet users, respectively. 

Bengaluru and Kolkata with 6.1 million users shared the third spot, followed by Chennai with 5.4 million internet users. 

The report said 72 per cent of urban internet users (about 139 million) use internet daily, while approximately 109 million or 57 per cent of rural users access internet daily. 

Nearly one-third of users access internet for more than one hour in urban India, whereas in rural India, a similar proportion of users access internet for 15-30 minutes. 

"With better connectivity, quality of service and affordability of mobile internet, there could be an increase in rural consumers spending more time on the internet in future," the report said. 

Female internet users' population is half of the 258 million male internet users, and the bias is more evident in rural India. 

Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have a higher proportion of female internet users than other states, it said.