Quantitative and qualitative data sets for 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa: a) SPSS dataset on young people’s use of mobile phones in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.  4626 cases (young people aged 7-25 years): 1568 Ghana; 1544 Malawi; 1514 South Africa.  719 variables (+ 11 ‘navigation facilitators’) b) 1,620 Qualitative transcripts from interviews with people of diverse ages, 8y upwards: individual interviews [using either i.theme checklist or ii call register checklist]; focus group interviews [not all sites]: 50-80 transcripts for most sites. This research project, which commenced in August 2012, explored how the rapid expansion of mobile phone usage is impacting on young lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It builds directly on our previous research on children’s mobility within which baseline quantitative data and preliminary qualitative information was collected on mobile phone usage (2006-2010) across 24 research sites, as an adjunct to our wider study of children’s physical mobility and access to services. In this study our focus is specifically on mobile phones and we cover a much wider range of phone-related issues, including changes in gendered and age patterns of phone use over time; phone use in building social networks (for instance to support job search); impacts on education, livelihoods, health status, safety and surveillance, physical mobility and possible connections to migration, youth identity, and questions of exploitation and empowerment associated with mobile phones. Mixed-method, participatory youth-centred studies have been conducted in the same 24 sites as in our earlier work across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa (urban, peri-urban, rural, remote rural, in two agro-ecological zones per country). We have built on the baseline data for 9-18 year-olds gathered in 2006-2010, through repeat and extended studies, but also included additional studies with 19-25 year-olds (to capture changing usage and its impacts as our initial cohort move into their 20s).

Questionnaire Survey + Interviews and focus groups. Sampling- Selection of Study Settlements:  The Survey was conducted in 24 field-sites across three countries (Ghana, Malawi, South Africa).  In each country, two contrasting agro-ecological zones were selected: o Ghana: Coastal Zone (Central Region) and Forest Zone (Brong Ahafo Region); o Malawi: Lilongwe Plains (Central)l,termed Lilongwe Zone and Shire Highlands (South), termed Blantyre Zone; o South Africa: Eastern Cape Province (Coastal) and Gauteng/North-West Provinces (Savannah).  In each agro-ecological zone, four low-income settlements were selected: o One urban [high density poor neighbourhood] o One peri-urban o One rural with basic services (i.e. primary school, clinic) o One remote rural, off-road, with no services. Quantitative data component: sampling within settlements:  In each settlement, the survey was administered to a minimum of 187 respondents: o 125 young people aged 9-18 years (in some sparsely-populated settlements the lower age limit was reduced to 7 or 8 years); o 63 young people aged 19-25 years.  N.B. In some of the more sparsely-populated rural settlements, it was not possible to achieve these sample sizes, in which case additional households were sampled from neighbouring settlements, where available.  Within each settlement, survey enumerators walked randomly-selected transects across the settlement, stopping at every household along the way. o [N.B. This ‘pseudo-random’ method of household sampling was used because the ‘informal’ nature of study settlements precluded using standard household registration-type sampling techniques.]  At each household, the household head (or another responsible adult) was asked to list all household members (present and absent) and their ages.  In households with more than one eligible respondent (aged 9-25 y), one or two respondents were drawn by ballot: o In households with 1 or 2 people aged 9-25y, one respondent was selected. o In households with 3 or more people aged 9-25y, two respondents were selected. o When the selected respondent was absent, the enumerator would return later if possible to complete the questionnaire or interview.  As far as possible, the fieldwork was conducted at times when young people were likely to at home: evenings, weekends and school holidays. In some cases, it was necessary to conduct additional interviews outside the home, usually at respondents’ farms or in school – this is indicated in the dataset.  In each settlement, a running tally was kept of completed questionnaires by age and gender. Towards the end of the survey in each settlement, if a particular gender/age group was clearly underrepresented, enumerators were asked to over-sample that group in the remainder of households. Full details of final sample size by country, age group, gender and settlement type are available an uploaded file, titled ESRC UK Data Archive File Information File name: “Child Phones SPSS for archive March 2016” Qualitative data component: in each of the 24 study settlements in-depth interviews were conducted as follows: • Individual interviews, school children of varied ages, both genders; non-school-going children of varied ages, both genders; post-18 men; post-18 women; additionally, where feasible, school teachers (where schools present at the study site); health workers (where centres present at the study site); call-centre operators/other phone-related businesses where these were present in the settlement, some parents/carers. • Interviews based on young people's call records and contacts lists in their phones (Horst &Miller 2005), but only if information request accepted. • Life history-style interviews with older youths (mid-late 20s) [focus on personal phone history and impacts on livelihood and relationships]. • Focus groups [where feasible] (a) with boys and girls, young men and young women separately; no attempt to remove non-phone users from these groups. (b) with older people 40+ regarding their views of youth phone use.