HONG KONG (AFX) - A quarter of all phone owners here are under 13 years old, with some as young as six, a survey has found.

Some 67 pct of the 613 households interviewed by the Ming Pao Daily News said that family members under the age of 18 owned a mobile phone, with more than a quarter of them under 13 and 5.1 pct under six.

Some 80 pct of respondents said their youngsters use new handsets with only 20 pct using second-hand phones, the survey said.

The newspaper said one girl had been using a mobile since she was five because of peer pressure. She favored those with new looks and different functions.

Now 13, she has owned more than 10 phones and her latest one cost her 3,000 hkd.

"To spend 3,000 dollars on a mobile phone is okay; to get a new one a year on average isn't too much," the girl, named Agnes, was quoted as saying.

Hong Kong mobile phone ownership is the highest in Asia, with 86 pct of the city's 6.9 mln people owning one or more mobile phones, according to a study by technology research company TNS last year.

Some 7.35 mln phones are in use here.

(1 usd = 7.8 hkd)

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