Kids today care less about celebrities, what they wear, and looking cool, the latest nationwide Young Australians Survey by Roy Morgan Research shows.

The proportion of kids aged six to 13 who say they want to look cool declined from 56 per cent to 54 per cent in the last two years, while the proportion saying it’s important for them to have nice clothes fell from 54 per cent to 50 per cent.

Michele Levine CEO of Roy Morgan Research, said these children are the first to have grown up with an internet connection and social media as the norm.

“Although marketers will often put a label on certain groups, even whole generations, for the sake of simplicity, any business with a genuine interest in connecting with children needs instead to listen carefully to what different kids from different households believe, who they admire, and the things they want, enjoy doing and care about.”

Celebrities have suffered the largest decline in the esteem of Australian children – in 2012, 54 per cent said they admired movie stars, rock, or pop stars, and other celebrities; today, such idols are admired by less than half of kids (49 per cent), with the overall decline mostly due to a nine per cent point drop among 10 to 13 year olds, from 60 per cent to 51 per cent.

Looking cool, it seems, is more often a younger person’s concern. Kids six to nine remain more likely to want to look cool (or admit they want to) than the older group, but the sentiment has declined among each.

Most of the overall dip in the proportion of kids who say it’s important for them to have nice clothes is due to a seven per cent point drop among youngsters aged six to nine, with only a minority at 45 per cent agreeing with the statement.