China News Service, May 13th, China Internet Network Information Center website released on the 13th "2019 National Internet Use Research Report for Minors" (hereinafter referred to as "Report"), "Report" shows that the scale of China's minor Internet users in 2019 It was 175 million, and the Internet penetration rate of minors reached 93.1%. Listening to music and playing games are still the main online entertainment activities for minors.
On May 13, 2020, the Communist Youth League Central Department for the Protection of Youth's Rights and Interests and the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) jointly released the "2019 National Internet Research Report on Minors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report").
The "Report" is based on a sample survey of 34,661 students in elementary, junior high, high school and secondary vocational schools in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) nationwide. In other respects, it shows the current characteristics of the Internet usage and online life status of minors in China.
The use of Internet by minors in China has become quite popular. "Report" shows that in 2019, the scale of China's minor Internet users is 175 million, and the Internet penetration rate of minors has reached 93.1%. The digital gap between urban and rural minors has been further bridged, with the Internet penetration rate of urban minors reaching 93.9% and rural minors reaching 90.3%. The difference between the two groups has fallen to 3.6 percentage points from 5.4 percentage points in 2018.
The proportion of minors who touched the net before school increased significantly. The "Report" shows that the penetration of the Internet into the younger age groups continues to increase, and 32.9% of primary school netizens started using the Internet before school age. This trend imposes higher requirements on households' online skills education, online content supervision and management, and targeted protection mechanisms for Internet companies.
Minors' perception of the Internet is positive. The survey found that minors believe that the Internet is mainly: a window to know the world (67.1%), an assistant for daily learning (66.1%), a way to relax and relax (59.3%), a tool to facilitate life (53.1%), and a friend Channel (36.5%), space for self-expression (18.8%). It can be seen that minors have their own perceptions and attitudes towards the Internet.
Mobile phones are the Internet tools most used by minors. The survey found that the proportion of underage netizens using various types of Internet access devices are mobile phones (93.9%), televisions (56.7%), desktop computers (45.0%), notebook computers (31.5%), and tablet computers (28.9%). Among underage netizens, 74.0% of them have their own Internet devices, and 63.6% of them have Internet mobile phones.
Learning, listening to music, and playing games are among the top three online activities. The survey found that among the various activities that minor netizens often engage in online, the top three are online learning (89.6%), listening to music (65.9%), and playing games (61.0%). Others include: online chat (58.0%), watching short videos (46.2%), searching for information (44.9%), watching videos (37.5%), watching animations or comics (33.2%), using social networking sites (32.0%), etc. .
The online learning of minors is deeply integrated with school classroom education. The survey found that the online learning of minors in turn is: doing homework (45.5%), reviewing the learned knowledge (44.4%), answering questions online (40.7%), memorizing words (39.1%), learning extracurricular knowledge (33.4% ), Online education counseling (18.3%). In the field of online learning, adults mainly search and obtain information, while minors are more likely to be an extension of classroom education.
The online entertainment and social activities of minors present new characteristics. The survey found that listening to music and playing games are still the main online entertainment activities for minors. In terms of playing games, mobile games accounted for 56.3%, and computer games accounted for 24.6%. The proportion of watching short videos and live webcasts increased by 5.7 and 6.4 percentage points respectively from 2018. Online chat is the most important way for minors to communicate online, accounting for 58.0%.
Junior high school is a critical period for the formation of the social attributes of minors' networks. The survey found that the proportion of primary school students engaged in various social activities such as chatting, using social networking sites, visiting Weibo, visiting forums, watching news, shopping, etc. was significantly lower than that of other academic grades, and there has been a significant increase since junior high school. For example, the proportion of junior high school students chatting online and using social networking sites to check or reply to their friend status increased by 31.5 and 29.8 percentage points respectively compared with primary school students.
The network literacy education system for minors needs to be further improved. The "Report" shows that 65.6% of underage netizens mainly learn online skills through their own exploration, and 25.7% of them obtain online skills through school learning. The current network literacy education has not yet formed a unified and standard teaching system. Network operation skills, network anti-addiction knowledge, self-protection awareness and ability need to be strengthened.
"Report" on the basis of summarizing the use of Internet by minors in China, made specific recommendations. One is to attach importance to online management and education of preschool children, and help children develop good network usage habits from the beginning of the Internet. The second is to take measures from multiple levels such as family, school, government, enterprise, and society to effectively reduce the harm of minors' excessive use of the Internet. The third is to build a systematic network literacy education system, focusing on skills such as Internet skills, prevention of addiction, self-protection, and information screening as compulsory courses. Fourth, improve the network protection mechanism for minors, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that use the network to infringe minors' safety and rights.
The survey also investigated the Internet use of left-behind children and mobile children, and conducted a comparative analysis with the national average of primary and secondary school students. At present, the Internet penetration rates of left-behind and mobile children in China are 77.7% and 83.6%, respectively. There are problems such as low Internet use skills, obvious mobile game preferences, and greater vulnerability to illegal violations. It is necessary to further improve online literacy education, strengthen social care assistance, Safeguard their legal rights and interests according to law.