Dear Subscribers:
We learned a lot this week and hope you will be as interested
as we were in the new information that's just emerged about online teens. Please
keep in mind we're looking for your stories of "Good Things [big and small
that] Kids are Doing on the Internet" (see our description).
We're also very interested in hearing about lessons learned (by kids and
their families) on and with the Internet.
Here's our lineup for this final week of June:
- Global data on teens in the digital age:
Their online lives; Risks encountered; Parents' views and policies
- Seasonal stuff
- Web News Briefs: Cyber-crime treaty; 400
million globally; The Net in Africa; Microsoft; US legislation; Napster
& libraries; Most wired school; Parental advisory in music....
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Global data: Teenagers in the digital age
We know a great deal more about online teens and their families' Net-use
policies this week, thanks to a whole passel of just-released surveys and
reports. We were quite fascinated by what these data show about the Internet's
impact on young people's lives, and we think you will be too. (We also think
the survey questions and responses say something about wise online-safety
practices and policies in the home.)
Three important studies - by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Canada's
Media Awareness Network, and the Crimes Against Children Research Center at
the University of New Hampshire - came out in the past couple of weeks. The
Walt Disney Company, too, released fresh data on 6-14-year-olds online, and
there were related media reports from Germany, Norway, Iran, and Malaysia.
- The online life of teens
The US now has 17 million Net users aged 12-17, according to a study
by the Pew
Internet & American Life Project, and the Net plays "a major role
in their relationships with their friends, families, and schools" (e.g.,
17% have used IMs to ask someone out, 13% to break up with someone!).
Here are other fascinating findings:
- 73% of US teenagers 12-17 use the Net.
- 74% of all US online teens (13 million) use instant messaging,
and 19% of them say IM is now the main way they communicate with their
friends.
- 75% of the online teens said they'd miss the Net if they couldn't
use it.
- Half said being online has improved their relationships with friends
and a third said it's helped them make new friends.
- Their Top 5 online activities are email, surfing for fun, visiting
entertainment sites, instant messaging, and researching hobbies.
Teens' phenomenal adoption of instant messaging was the focus of reports
from both CNN.com
and USAToday (at Newsbytes.com).
CNN says the study shows that "teenagers have adopted the Internet and
instant messaging so completely that it has even replaced face-to-face
communication as the primary mode of interacting for some teens." And
USAToday says
IM is becoming "an indispensable means of teen socialization." (Tell your
teens to "get ready for IM advertising," the New
York Times warned this week.)
The gap between what parents say and what kids say about parental restrictions
on kids' Net use was the focus of ComputerUser.com's
coverage of the Pew Report ("61% of parents said they restrict when
and for how long their children may use the Internet, and 37% of the kids
reported having any online restrictions").
Disney just released a survey of slightly younger kids (ages 6-14) and
their parents (see below), reports Reuters).
It found that:
- 80% of children reported that a parent has told them what to do if
someone they don't know asked personal questions about them online.
- Asked what they do when faced with inappropriate solicitations, 42%
of children said they don't answer, 34% notify their parents, and 23%
log off.
- 91% of the children said they would not reveal their name, 96% would
not give out their address, and 99% would not give out their phone number
to a stranger online.
One student's stand against filtering
Seventeen-year-old Daniel Silverman in Santa Ana, Calif., gives a clear
view of the online life of students, teachers, and administrators in a
US high school in a piece he wrote for Salon.com.
We don't think his school's experience is one bit unusual. His description
of his stand for students' "fair and equitable access to online information,"
one that he says even some teachers supported, yields insights into how
tough decisionmaking can be for administrators when students know a lot
more about technology than they do; schools' filtering dilemmas; and what
schools face in complying with district-level Net-use policies as well
as the Children's Internet Protection Act, the US's new mandatory-filtering
law for schools and libraries. (Search for "CIPA" at the top of this page
to find all updates on the law and lawsuits filed against it.)
Canadian teens' online times
An even higher proportion of young Canadians are online than US teens.
Seventy-nine percent of Canadian teens are accessing the Net from home,
and a majority of them are well ahead of their parents in knowledge and
exploration of cyberspace, according to a Media
Awareness Network study funded by the Canadian government. Here are
just a few key findings:
- Half of young people said they think they know more about the Internet
than their parents do.
- 84% said they're by themselves when they go online, at least some
of the time.
- 70% said their parents talk to them very little or not at all about
what they do online.
- 38% said they use the Net for schoolwork (though not as much as their
parents think they do). The Net was ranked No. 1 among young people
as their preferred source of information, followed by books from the
public library and books from school.
Norway's even more wired kids
A whopping 92% of all Norwegians 7-18 have Net access, according to
a Norwegian Film Control Board survey of parents in that country. According
to Aftenposten
Interactive, "most [Norwegian] parents are concerned about their children's
Internet use, but an amazing nine out of ten have no idea whom to contact
about security control measures."
German teens: Most time spent online
Germans 16 and under are "not as smitten" with the Internet as online
kids in other countries, but those online are spending more time on the
Net than their counterparts elsewhere. Newsbytes.com
cites a NetValue Deutschland survey that looked at teen Net use at home
just during the month of March '01. It showed that only 6.8% of German
adolescents used the Net that month, behind Norway (18.9%), the UK (11.6%),
Denmark (11.4%), the US (10.8%), France (8.2%), Germany (6.8%), and Spain
(6.7 percent). Then the study looked at the average number of hours teens
spent online a week during March and found that German youth averaged
10.9 hours, compared with 5.9 hours in the US, 5.8 in the UK, 5.6 in Spain,
4 in Norway, 3.9 in France, and 3.3 in Denmark. As for online *communications*,
the study also found that young Germans "spend on average almost twice
as much time chatting and instant messaging online as the average of adolescents
outside of Germany. One explanation offered for German online kids' heavy
use is that they're early adopters, compared with young Net users in other
countries, and early adopters tend to be heavier users.
Iran, Malaysia, Taiwan: Cyber-cafe controversy
Several news outlets reported that Iran's national telephone monopoly
had issued new regulations forcing Internet service providers to block
access to juveniles, but the phone company denied the charge, according
to CNN.com.
Its response offered insights into how many young people access the Net
in Iran: The phone company said there had been a misunderstanding; it
had simply told ISPs that they cannot authorize people under 18 to open
cyber-cafes.
"The capital city of Tehran boasts more than 1,500 Internet cafes, with
more in other large metropolitan areas," CNN reports, adding that "the
businesses are favorite hangouts for the mostly young population of Iran,
an Islamic republic where conservatives direct the state media. Last month
authorities closed down more than 400 cyber-shops in Tehran, demanding
that owners obtain licenses to remain open."
Cyber-cafes appear to be causing controversy and/or concern in other
countries, too. In Malaysia, which has spent billions of dollars in the
last five years on becoming a tech-literate society and preparing youth
for high-tech jobs, "cyber-cafes have sprung up in the smallest towns.
But many Malaysians believe [the] freedom of access [the cafes represent]
may give youth too many of the wrong kind of ideas," reports Reuters (via
Wired
News). New regulations are afoot in at least one Malaysian state.
And in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, which has proposed "draconian
regulations" for cyber-cafes, cafe owners are offering some compromises.
According to the Taipei
Times, Net cafe proprietors "said they were willing to pay for the
installation of monitoring systems connecting their premises to the police
and to implement self-monitoring measures in exchange for the city government's
relaxation of the regulations."
2. Risks encountered
Sexual solicitation of online kids was the focus of a study by the Crimes
Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire published
in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week. Findings
cited in the New
York Times included these:
- 19% of the young people surveyed said they had received at least one
sexual solicitation in the past year.
- 3% characterized the solicitation as aggressive.
- 10% of those solicitations were reported to the police, and a majority
of children and parents said they did not know how to report an incident
to authorities.
- 25% of the young people reported being very upset or afraid because
of the experience ("and neither the presence of filters nor parental
monitoring ...decreased the likelihood that a child would be sexually
solicited by a stranger online, the researchers said").
- Those at the greatest risk of such encounters are kids who 1) spend
the most time online and 2) directly communicate with others in chat
rooms or via instant-messaging.
3. Parents' views and policies
In the US
The Pew survey also offered insights into American parents' policies
and feelings about their teens' online activities:
- 55% of parents of online teens say learning how to use the Internet
is essential for their children's future success and a further 40% say
it is important.
- Just over 60% say they have rules about Internet use, and the same
proportion check to see what sites their children visit.
- 70% have the Net-enabled PC in an open family area in their home.
- 41% have installed filters or content controls.
- 45% of parents are worried that the Internet leads young people to
engage in dangerous or harmful activities.
- 40% have had arguments with their children about the Internet.
We parents are definitely setting more online rules and limits, the
Disney study (of 774 US parents with children 4-14 and of about 400 children
6-14) found. Here are its key findings on parent policies:
- 71% of parents set rules on the content their children interact with
online.
- 48% set limits on surfing time.
- 88% of parents say their child does not go online at all from his/her
own bedroom.
- 55% say the child goes online with parents or the entire family present.
In Canada:
Here's what the Media Awareness Network found in its parents study about
Canadian family online practices:
- 35% of parents said they know "a great deal" about the Web sites their
kids visit; 36% "a fair bit."
- 38% said they talk "a great deal" to their children about using the
Net; 40% "a fair bit."
- 75% said the family computer is located in a common area of the home.
- 70% have set rules for their children's Internet use.
- 67% said they check the bookmarks or browser history to see where
their children go online.
- 21% of children have come across sexually explicit material (that
their parents are aware of).
- 6% of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material (that their
parents are aware of)
- 4% of children have met someone in person whom they first met on the
Net (that their parents are aware of).
In the UK:
In a relevant news piece, "The Once Project," a European Union-backed
online-safety project, tells parents they need to be as familiar as their
kids with chat and IM in order to ensure their online safety. According
to the BBC,
"Greater familiarity would mean that parents have a better idea of what
their children are getting up to online, and make more sensible decisions
about policing Net time."
* *
Now we'd like to hear about experiences with and policies for online kids
at your house or school - do send views and stories to feedback@netfamilynews.org!
(We want to thank QuickLinks
in the UK for pointing out some of the above stories.)
* * * *
Seasonal stuff
- Celebrating independence
There's lots of July 4th fun and learning at FamilyEducation.com
this week - from a fireworks screensaver to instructions on how to
make a red, white 'n' blue pinwheel and shoot virtual fireworks online.
Homeschoolers have probably already found the Betsy Ross home page and
the "Happy Birthday America" Web site.
- Chill out…
…courtesy of NationalGeographic.com's
"Antarctica". You can see what it's like to be on an expedition to
that chilly continent by checking out the dispatches, video, audio, and
photos from researchers on an icebreaker just now ending its mission.
They were studying krill, a small sea creature that is key to Antarctica
life. And for the latest kid features at this site, go to National
Geographic Kids for fun summer learning with the likes of "Creature
Feature," a Pearl Harbor message board for kids, and "Cartoon Factory,"
where kids supply the words.
* * * *
Web News Briefs
- International cyber-crime pact
The "Convention on Cyber-Crime," expected to be ratified and signed
by multiple countries shortly, might help advance the world's fight against
child pornography online, but it has its critics. According to CNET,
the broad treaty, designed to improve international cooperation in fighting
crime on the Internet, will also help combat crimes such as unauthorized
access to a network, data interference, computer-related fraud and forgery,
and digital copyright infringement. The critics, ZDNet
reports, mostly from the US, voiced their opposition to the treaty
following the end of a two-week drafting session on Wednesday. [They]
claim the pact threatens free speech and could force Internet service
providers to become global content police."
- Minority of 400 million
The Internet is "merely a minority pursuit in the global scheme of things,
says Britain's TheRegister.com,
explaining that - according to fresh data from Ipsos-Reid researchers
who spoke to people in 30 countries - only one in 10 people use the Net
out of a world population of 6 billion. US-based Nielsen/NetRatings
confirms that number as conservative with its figure for 1st-quarter 2001:
429 million people with Net access worldwide. The regional breakdown:
"The US and Canada still account for the largest proportion of the world's
Internet access, with 41% of the global audience located in those countries.
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa has the second highest proportion
of access, with 27% of the world's Internet population, followed by Asia
Pacific with 20%, and trailed by Latin America with 4%.
- State of the Net: Africa
And while we're getting a handle on Internet demographics, Nua
Internet Surveys summarizes a thorough update just done on Africa,
where 1 in 200 people are online (1 in 3 in North America and Europe,
1 in 30 worldwide). Nua cites the prohibitive cost of access as the biggest
barrier, though work-arounds are in process. The study, by African Internet
company SANGONeT's Mike Jensen, shows that there are now "about 1.3 million
dial-up Internet access subscribers in Africa, with 750,000 in South Africa,
250,000 in the North African countries, and 300,000 shared out across
the rest of the continent." Between three and five people use each dial-up
account, the report found, which means there are now "at least 4 million"
Net users in Africa (2.5 million of them in South Africa) and 640 Internet
service providers (75 of them in South Africa). "Many ISPs allow users
to have an email-only account for a lower subscription fee. Others, including
the regional market leader, Africa Online, are rolling out public access
points. Apart from kiosks and cyber-cafes, Internet access is also being
made available in public buildings such as schools, police stations, and
clinics.
- Good news for Microsoft
Anyone interested has probably already heard plenty about a US federal
appeals court's unanimous decision to throw out a lower court's order
for the breakup of Microsoft (though the court said MS had indeed abused
its monopoly power in the software business). Just in case you'd like
a few more angles on this top tech story of the week.... Here's some perspective
via a Washington
Post editorial and CNET's
very complete roundup. Here's Microsoft's
official response and the somewhat vague one from the US Justice Department,
as reported by IDG.net.
The New
York Times spells out the options both Microsoft and the Justice Department
now have and describes the
antitrust actions MS still faces.
- More legislation: Student privacy, pedophilia
The US Congress just gave schools more to deal with than mandatory filtering
and the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). According to Newbytes.com,
"the Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would require schools
to get parental consent before collecting personal information from students
for commercial use." Looks good at first glance (as did CIPA), but the
National School Board Association and the American Association of School
Administrators "have generally opposed the legislation, saying it would
severely restrict student access to the Internet, undermine local control,
and impose an administrative burden on local schools."
Other legislation that advanced in Congress this week would give police
broader powers to "to track and pursue pedophiles who target children
over the Internet." The bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee's
Subcommittee on Crime, reports Newsbytes.com,
but "some lawmakers expressed concern that the bill could needlessly expand
the federal government's surveillance powers."
- 'Napster and libraries'
For over a year libraries have been looking into a Napster-like system
called Docster to share files and documents between library branches,
according to Internet.com.
But Napster CEO Hank Barry says that just because Napster's copyright
problems are subsiding doesn't mean other organizations engaged in Net-based
file-sharing won't run into similar battles. At the American Library Association's
annual conference in San Francisco, he told librarians to watch out for
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Internet.com gives a hypothetical
situation in which file-sharing libraries can run into trouble under the
copyright law.
- Most wired school
A private school in Winston-Salem, N.C., is requiring that all high
school students come to school with a Palm IIIc and a portable keyboard.
In a great followup to our last issue's feature
on pocket PCs in school, Wired
News reports that, according to Palm, it's the first K-12 school in
the US to have such a requirement.
Also from Wired's ed writer, Katie Dean, see "New
Tools for the Schools", her report from the National Educational Computing
Conference (of 15,000 educators!) on the latest on tech for school.
- Parental advisory on music
Feel the need to be more up on today's music scene and the latest censorship
issues? Our thanks to QuickLinks
for pointing out a TheStandard.com interview with Eric Nuzum, author of
"Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America." The interview was picked
up by the New
York Times. One interesting factoid we learned from it is that, according
to Nuzum (pronounced "news-um") "the Wal-Mart chain is the world's largest
music retailer, selling as many as one out of every 10 CDs sold in the
US." And Wal-Mart "has a blanket policy not to stock any music product
with a parental advisory," Nuzum heard from a music buyer for the chain.
- Does Web encourage extremism?
Some social scientists think so, reportedly. A New
York Times piece explains the "group polarization" the Web fosters,
whereby "like-minded people in an isolated group reinforce one another's
views, which then harden into more extreme positions." The Times reports
on the views of University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein, author
of "Republic.com," a book about the "negative political effects of the
Web." Professor Sunstein says the Internet "allows people to filter out
unwanted information, tailor their own news and congregate at specialized
Web sites that closely reflect their own views." Other views are discussed
in this interesting piece, too - great for students of politics.
- Uninflated kiddie-pool prices
This mom has done us a service (those of us also in the market for backyard
wading pool, that is). Be sure to read to the end before you order The
Playground Pool at any of a number of Web-based pool purveyors (URLs provided
in this fun-to-read New York Times "Online
Shopper" column.
* * * *
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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anne Collier, Editor
Net Family News
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