Youth Online Behavior Study

 

Today’s youth are online pros who know how to navigate through content, play games and use communication services. Let’s take a look at a study conducted by Harris Interactive in 2010, which surveyed 1,357 10 – 17 year-olds in the U.S.

           Half of kids surveyed say that they have been using the Internet for five years or more. 58% consider themselves heavy users who access the Internet six or seven days a week.

·         Communicating and downloading content are two primary uses of the Internet by young people, but education also plays an important role. Nearly 80% say they use the Web to do research for school assignments.

·         Gaming is also a popular activity, which 61% of kids saying they play games online, including multiplayer online games.

·         81% of 16 and 17-year-olds reporting having at least one social networking account.

·         Over half (53%) of kids say they typically view and download media online.

·         Nearly all kids (91%) say that their parents trust them to do what’s right online. However, 56% say that their parents know some of what they do online, but not everything, and a quarter (26%) report that their parents don’t have time to check up on what they do online.

·         Although teens are heavy internet users, it’s still surprising that 27% say that they have accidentally infected their home computer with a virus or other malware.

·         17% have shared their passwords with friends.

·         20% say they have experienced cyber bullying.

·         25% say they wouldn’t know what to do if they were bullied or harassed online.

·         About a third (32%) say that they don’t tell their parents what they are doing online, and 31% would change their behavior if they knew their parents were watching. That’s why I always told my kids to “Always act as though your mom were watching.”

·         Even thought parents are less likely to monitor their children’s behavior as they get older, young people are more inclined to hide what they do online from their parents as they get older. By the time they reach the ages of 16, 56% of teens hide their online activities.

·         The most common ways that kids hide their online activities from their parents are by minimizing the browser when their parents are nearby (29%), hiding and deleting text messages (20%), and clearing the browser history (21%).

·         Parents should note that about one third of young people say they “often” or “always” hide their online activities from their parents.