Forget the stereotypes. The Times reports that young mobile users – at least in the U.K. - aren’t the power users we thought. Latency, high data tariffs and general indifference to mobile Internet offers are among the chief factors holding back take-up of mobile data services, according to a new study published by Forrester Research. Based on a survey of more than 7,000 12 to 24-year-olds, Forrester found consumption of mainstream mobile content is healthy, with young users spending around 25 euros ($33) a month on their bill- about 20 percent more than the amount spent by the wider population. The amount over and above the monthly contract goes for SMS, MMS, ringtones and TV voting.

Mobile Internet use, by comparison, is sluggish. More than 50 percent of young users said they never browsed the Internet, and only 8 percent said that they used it once a week or more. And the real shocker: only 1 percent use the Internet on a daily basis. This behavior pattern hardly bodes well for the slew of deals aimed at bringing social networking and Internet brands such as MySpace to teenagers.

Improved usability and lower data charges would no doubt go a long way toward encouraging use. However, the article also points out that part of the problem lies in a seismic shift in the value chain. Mobile operators are not the brands that users associate with Internet services. Rather than fight this losing battle mobile operators should partner with the names young mobile users know best. Ben Wood, an analyst with CCS Insight, is quoted as saying: “Phone operators have gone from believing they can deliver everything themselves to realizing that if a teenager wants to share photos, they’re going to do it on Flickr, not via a Vodafone picture gallery.”

The survey also found that 61 percent of young users could access the Internet – but only 34 percent of users wanted the same functionality on their next handsets. For 65 percent of users MP3 was a must, and 44 percent wanted Bluetooth connectivity on their next phones.