Internet Use, Age and

By the beginning of the 21st century, Internet use had become an established part of the media landscape for young people in many parts of the world. In 2005, an estimated 77 million persons under the age of 18 were online. Whereas English remains the dominant language on the Internet, and the vast majority of young people in North America and the United Kingdom have Internet access, the Asia Pacific region (especially India and China) has experienced the largest growth in Internet use among young people in recent years, followed by an increase in the number of young users in European, Scandinavian, South American, African, and Middle Eastern countries. Most access to the Internet remains disproportionately in the hands of the wealthiest citizens of each of the world's countries, and at this relatively early stage in the life of the Internet, the bulk of the research on young people online has been conducted in the English-speaking countries of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. (Research on mobile media, including Internet access through cell phones, has been especially strong in Scandinavian and Asian countries, however). This entry relies heavily upon research reports about Internet use in regions where it is most common.

The United States has the highest percentage of its young people on the Internet, and they spend the most time online. Young people in the United States spend an average of 48 minutes each day online, although older teens spend more time online than younger children. About a third of young people aged 8 to 18 have created their own website or web page. The most common ways in which young people have engaged in Internet use, however, include (1) playing online games (8 in 10 U.S. teens online play games online); (2) instant messaging with friends (75% of U.S. teens online use IM, and one third of all U.S. teens use IM every day); and (3) downloading music (half of all U.S. teens online have downloaded music) or (4) accessing websites about movies, television shows, music, or sports. Teens also get news online, shop online, and retrieve health information online. Still, 13% of young people in the United States do not use the Internet. Young people from lower-income families and those from African American families are the least likely to be online.

Whereas most young people over the age of 8 have used the Internet to conduct research for a school assignment, more than a quarter admit that they have used it in less approved ways, such as pretending to be someone older to gain access to a site or copying something from the Internet and turning it in as their own work. Additionally, 60% of 13-to-16-year-old girls in the United States and almost half of 9-to-19-year-olds surveyed in the United Kingdom admitted to giving out personal information to someone they had met online.

By 2005, almost all U.S. and U.K. young people aged 8 to 18 had accessed the Internet from their schools. While three quarters of all young people had Internet access in their home, only about a third had high-speed access. Research has found that young people in the United States and the United Kingdom are more likely than their counterparts in other parts of the world to have their Internet use monitored. About one quarter of all U.S. teens online have rules about restricted time on the computer, and about a quarter access the Internet through some kind of filter. Almost 20% of 8-to-18-year-olds in the United States an the United Kingdom had Internet access in their bedrooms, however—a marked increase over the previous 6 years, according to a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in the United States. This same study found that young people in the United States are increasingly taking the Internet with them outside the home: 13% of 8-to-18-year-olds had a handheld device with Internet access.

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