Teenagers are walking the streets wearing clothes and carrying electronic equipment worth as much as £768 in total, a study of 2,500 youths by Cornhill Direct has revealed.

Moreover, the marked tendency among teenagers to lose valuable items such as phones, wallets and MP3 players, with three in ten regularly losing such items, forces parents to use their home contents insurance to replace lost or stolen items, the research finds.

The clothes an average teenager is clad in are worth around £230, while accessories such as jewellery can be worth as much as £125.

Factoring in watches and the newest and most desirable digital technologies, such as MP3 players, the walking teenager is worth almost £800.

Worse yet, “young teenagers travelling alone are particularly vulnerable to thieves and muggers”, Mark Bishop, a spokesman for Cornhill, emphasised.

“Parents should certainly try to prevent them leaving home with too much expensive kit on them,” he added.

Failing that, extending home insurance contents cover beyond the vicinity of the home helps ensure that kids’ mishaps can be repaired.

For more information about home insurance, click here.

© Adfero Ltd