Canada’s Internet Generation: Connected, Active and Younger Than Ever
Valerie Steeves and Cathy Wing
Valerie Steeves, PhD, is in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. Cathy Wing is the “Young Canadians in a Wired World” Program Coordinator for Media Awareness Network.
Issue Contents
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Introduction
Canada is one of the most wired countries in the world. Using our extensive cable television and telephone infrastructure, government and industry have been able to bring relatively inexpensive access to all regions of the country. In March 1999, we became the first country in the world to connect all of its libraries and schools to the Internet, and in 2001, almost 80 percent of Canadian households with children in Grades 4 to 11 had Internet access (Media Awareness Network, 2001, p. 23).
In order to understand the impact this pervasive technology was having on the first generation of children to grow up with it in their homes, the Canadian media education organization, Media Awareness Network (MNet), launched an ambitious research project in 2000-2001. Using focus groups and surveys with thousands of parents and students, the Young Canadians in a Wired World study created a detailed portrait of young Canadians online lives.
The overall picture left many people concerned that the Internet posed a danger to young people because it made them more vulnerable to online strangers and exposed them to offensive content. It also highlighted the lack of understanding parents had regarding their kids’ online activities and behaviours.
With those concerns in mind, MNet returned to the field in March 2005 for Phase II of Young Canadians in a Wired World. This new study (MNet, 2005), conducted by ERIN Research, consisted of a national survey administered to 5,272 students, in Grades 4 to 11. The research focussed on getting a more accurate snapshot of where today’s youth are at when it comes to the Net, with less emphasis on risky behaviour and more on the significant ways in which young people are using – and driving – the technology. This article will look at some of the key findings from the student survey, as well as qualitative research conducted by Media Awareness Network in 2003.
Overall, this new picture is quite positive. The majority of young Canadians have integrated the Net into mainstream activities which strengthen their connections to their real world communities and foster social interactions with peers. At the same time, however, offensive content and risky situations on sites young people like to visit and their own concerns about privacy and authenticating online information raise serious questions about how to provide them with the tools they need to wisely navigate the Net.
A highly connected generation
Canadian students are a very wired group; 94 percent of kids report that they have Internet access at home, and a significant majority of them (61 percent) enjoy a high-speed connection. By the time kids hit Grade 11, half of them (51 percent) have their own Internet-connected computer apart from a family computer, and a significant percentage of younger kids also have their own Internet access. Not surprisingly, kids with their own connected computer spend twice as much time online as those who share a computer. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 4)
But that is only part of the story. Although a home computer remains the most common way young people connect to the Internet, around half of kids with cell phones can use those phones to surf the Net (44 percent) and text message their friends (56 percent). So, for many youth, access to networked communications is no longer limited to landlocked PCs (p.15).
In addition, the line between cyber spaces and real world spaces is blurred by the surprising number of kids who have their own cell phone cameras (17 percent) and Webcams (22 percent overall and 31 percent by Grade 11) (p.15).
This blending of virtual and real spaces is accompanied by a similar convergence of online and traditional media. By Grade 8, three-quarters (77 percent) of kids download music and one-third (33 percent) access movies and TV shows online. The resulting mediascape provides kids with multiple opportunities to communicate, express themselves and be entertained, with little interruption as they move back and forth between real and virtual spaces. (p. 20)
Online space is social space
Young people tell us that they don’t see the Net as a distinct entity or environment. It is simply one more space in which they live their lives – connecting with friends, pursuing interests, figuring out what it means to be a teenager and a grown-up. (Media Awareness Network, 2004, p. 12). To them, the Net has become wallpaper, seamlessly blending with the social spaces they inhabit in the real world.
Kids’ interest in integrating the Net into their social lives begins at a surprisingly early age. Twenty-eight percent of Grade 4 students use instant messaging on an average school day, a number that jumps to 43 percent in Grade 5; by Grade 11 that number is 86 percent. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 20)
Contrary to the earlier stereotype of the isolated and awkward computer nerd, today’s wired kid is a social kid. A growing number of young people report that they use the Net with other people most of the time, and by Grade 8, the average youth is spending over an hour a day of their online time talking to friends. (p. 22). Kids who spend more time online each day also feel more confident about their ability to make friends, tell jokes and make people laugh. (p. 57)
Young people use their social skills online primarily to participate in and extend their existing real-world social networks. Typically, a friend they meet online is a friend of a family member or a friend of a friend in the real world. School, sports and parties continue to be their primary source of meeting new friends, with the Internet placing a distant fourth. (p. 76)
The majority of kids report their online social interactions are very positive. When the survey respondents were asked to describe a memorable Internet experience, the largest single category of experiences (15 percent) involved connecting with friends or making new friends. Over 80 percent of those experiences were reported to be good ones. Six percent were reported to be bad, and 13 percent were reported as neutral. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 32) The survey identified four factors that play a primary role in determining whether an online experience is good or bad. Not surprisingly, kids report that a good experience is typically funny and exciting, and makes them feel good about themselves. But they also say it involves an activity that would meet with their parents’ approval. A lack of parental approval correlates with a bad online experience. (p. 38)
The risks of online environments
For young people the Internet is often a vehicle for bullying, sexual harassment and other negative social interaction. Among those students who report being bullied, 74 percent were bullied at school, with 27 percent stating that they had been bullied over the Internet. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p.84) Among those who report sexual harassment, however, the situation is reversed; 47 percent report being harassed at school and 70 percent state that they had been harassed over the Internet. (p. 86)
One of the draws of the Internet is the way it provides young people with a window into a teenaged or adult world that is otherwise closed to them. In this environment kids feel safe experimenting with behaviours such as risk taking, exploring sexual and social roles and trying out new identities. The majority of students (59 percent) report that they have assumed a different online identity at one time. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 50) Seventeen percent do this so they can “be mean to others and get away with it”, 26 percent want to “flirt with people” while 28 percent “want to see what it would be like to be older”. (p. 51)
The common practice of posting pictures and personal details on MSN profiles, personal Web pages and blogs demonstrates how young people use the Net to explore their sexuality and how permeable the line between their private lives and the Internet has become. When students were asked to list their favourite Web sites, social networking sites such as Nexopia, Piczo and Doyoulookgood were among the most popular, especially for Grade 8-11 girls. (p. 27) On these sites users create profiles containing photos, personal information and blog-type entries. The profiles are often sexually suggestive and encourage a form of exhibitionism.
Around one-third of kids’ top 50 favourite sites incorporate material that is sexualized (32 percent) or violent (28 percent). (Media Awareness Network, 2005b, p. 17) Kids in Grades 8 and 9 appear to include these sites on their list of favourites most frequently. For example, eBaumsworld, an edgy and often highly sexualized humour site, ranks third on the list of favourites for this age group. Newgrounds, a multimedia site containing mature and violent content, ranks fourth. Both sites are also high on the list of favourites among younger kids; eBaumsworld is number 10 and Newgrounds is number 12 for kids in Grades 6 and 7. (p. 17)
Boys tend to be more interested than girls are in this kind of edgy content. In the past school year, 32 percent of boys in Grade 7 had intentionally visited sites containing hate, gore, gambling, porn or adult chat, compared with eight percent of girls. (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 61)
The collection of kids’ personal information
Kids’ favourite sites are also highly commercialized environments where collection of personal information is routine. Ninety percent of the top 50 sites contain registration procedures where kids are asked to submit personal information and 94 percent collect additional information through other features such as surveys and contests. (Media Awareness Network, 2005b, p. 17) Kids’ interest in online discussion and their willingness to talk about themselves guarantee that these sites provide marketers with a constant stream of market-research information.
Neopets is a good example. Neopets is the number one site for girls in Grades 4 to 7 and makes the top 10 list for boys in Grades 4 to 7 (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 26) and girls in Grades 8 to 11 (p. 27). Young people playing on the site create virtual pets to play with, and then fill out marketing surveys to earn enough Neopoints to purchase virtual food and toys for their pets. The surveys typically ask for personal information, including the child’s name, age, gender and postal code, and then ask them to identify their product preferences, habits, hobbies, likes and dislikes.
Neopets, like 48 other sites in the top 50 list, has a privacy policy in which the site owners explain what personal information they collect and how they use it. Although only six percent of kids in Grades 7 to 11 always read privacy policies, 45 percent do read them sometimes (Media Awareness Network, 2005b. 17). However, a Flesch (1994) reading ease assessment conducted of the top 50 sites indicated that the privacy policies on the top 50 sites are written in university-level language and are accordingly very difficult for young people to read and understand.
Using the Internet for research and school assignments
Kids are using the Internet as a learning tool – over 60 percent of students go online daily to research topics of personal interest. On an average week day, 31 percent of girls and 41 percent of boys look up news, weather and sports online and 75 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys do schoolwork online.
Using the Internet for schoolwork starts at an early age with almost half (47 percent) of Grade 4 students doing homework online on a daily basis and there is little change with age; the proportion of kids who regularly do homework online holds steady at around 75 percent from Grade 6 on (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 20). The amount of time spent on homework, however, is small in comparison to other online activities. Even in Grade 11 students are only spending 37 minutes per night doing school work online versus 70 minutes instant messaging, 30 minutes researching topics of person interest and 50 minutes playing games (p. 22).
When students were asked how they prefer to get information for school – online or from books in a library – the Internet was the clear winner. It’s not hard to imagine reasons for the choice; for kids the Net is convenient and fast. In Grade 4, 62 percent prefer the Internet and 38 percent the library. By Grades 10 and 11 students percent prefer the Net over the library by a factor of 10 to 1 (91 percent to 9 percent) (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 53).
Despite their preference for the Net, young people recognize the drawbacks of getting information online. When students are asked what Internet-related subjects they would like to learn about in school, the top choice for 68 percent is “How to tell if information you find on the Net is true or not.” The interest is highest among the children in Grades 4 to 6 at 75 percent (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 55). While the majority (58 percent) say they enjoy using the Internet for their schoolwork, almost half (47 percent) feel it makes no difference to the quality of their work (p. 54).
Parental involvement
It is essential that adults responsible for guiding children in the new online environment come to understand and appreciate both what the Net means to their kids and how commercial and other imperatives have shaped the online spaces they inhabit. The good news is that parental involvement has increased since 2001 and that rules in the home have a positive effect on young people’s behaviour.
For example, in households where there is a rule about “sites you should not visit”, 14 percent of kids in Grades 6 and 7 have purposefully visited sites dealing in porn, gore, hate and related topics. In households that have no such rule, 43 percent of kids have purposefully visited these sites (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 70). Similarly, a rule about meeting online acquaintances in the real world reduces the likelihood that a young person will do so by one-half (from 34 percent to 16 percent) (p. 71).
While rules are less effective with older students, they still have an impact. In homes where there is a rule about not visiting certain sites, one-third (33 percent) of Grade 10 and 11 students visited the sites, while in homes where there is no rule, nearly one-half (49 percent) of students in Grades 10 and 11 visited them (p. 70).
Where do we go from here?
To provide young people with the tools they need to wisely navigate the online world, it is essential that adults understand that the Net is part of their children’s social environment. It is one of the places where kids connect with their friends, explore social roles, learn more about things that interest them and express themselves.
A key finding of the research is that parent expectations help shape successful online experiences (Media Awareness Network, 2005a, p. 38). Because kids today are going online from home in much larger numbers than they are from school or from the public library, it is essential that parents get involved and ensure that their kids understand how to be safe, wise and responsible Internet users.
In a school setting, teachers and teacher-librarians can play a significant role in helping young people learn how to understand the consequences of their online actions, critically examine the content they are exposed to and understand online privacy issues and how to authenticate online content.
Students also need to understand the ways in which commercial interests shape the online environment. Young children especially, would benefit from learning how to distinguish commercial messages embedded in online playgrounds. As well, education on privacy can help younger students understand how market research structures their online play.
Older kids also need the skills to protect their privacy, particularly as they explore social networking sites. Grades 6 and 7 are key points for intervention, since kids in these grades are just beginning to explore the social possibilities they find on the Net. By Grades 8 and 9, a critical mass of young people have access and are out there. They need to have the skills to understand the media images they encounter, especially sexualized and violent content.
Technical fixes, like filters and software that track the sites kids visit, cannot replace education and parental involvement. Furthermore, these devices may violate kids’ need to have an appropriate degree of privacy so they can begin to stretch their wings outside the home. Instead of relying on technology, parents and educators need to talk to young people about their online experiences and provide them with guidance that takes into account just how important the Net is to their social relationships.
School administrators and teacher-librarians need to provide support for teachers, so they can become educated about the online environment. As Industry Canada reports, “Only 46 percent of school principals viewed that the majority of their teachers were adequately prepared to engage their students effectively in the use of [information and communications technologies] to enhance their learning.” Teachers should also be encouraged to take advantage of young people’s familiarity with the online world and give them more challenging assignments that make better use of their online abilities.
Parents and educators cannot do this alone. Corporations using the Net to attract young people should be encouraged to revisit existing codes regarding marketing to children and should seek to design online environments that respect children’s developmental needs. Government and industry must both provide financial support for media education programs and continuing research into children’s online activities.
References
Flesch, R. (1994). The Art of Readable Writing Macmillan General Reference; Reissue edition
Industry Canada , School Net, (2004). Connectivity and Learning in Canada ’s Schools. Retrieved May 16, 2006 from http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=56F0004MIE2004011
Media Awareness Network, (2001), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase I: The Students’ View, Ottawa , ON .
Media Awareness Network, (2004), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II: Focus Groups, Ottawa , ON .
Media Awareness Network, (2005a), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II: Student Survey, Ottawa , ON .
Media Awareness Network, (2005b), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II: Trends and Recommendations, Ottawa , ON .
Appendix A: Facts about Children's Internet Use
List of Kids’ Top 10 Favourite Sites
addictinggames <www.addictinggames.com>
miniclip <www.miniclip.com>
neopets <www.neopets.com>
ebaumsworld <www.ebaumsworld.com>
newgrounds <www.newgrounds.com>
runescape <www.runescape.com>
funnyjunk <www.funnyjunk.com>
candystand <www.candystand.com>
ytv <www.ytv.com>
launch <music.yahoo.com>
Online Profiles
Profile of Kids in Grades 4-5
