Japan has the lowest penetration rate, child mobile phone · Internet usage situation

American non-profit organization"Common Sense Media"According to a survey, the time spent on the Internet by children from 0 to 8 years is about three times the time to read books.

This survey further shows that mobile phones and tablets are beginning to spread to considerably low age groups, and in the United States already"Smart phones are familiar from the time they were born"It seems that a new generation of digital natives is born.

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◆ Diffusion of mobile phones to lower age groups in the US
According to a survey of "Common Sense Media", about 53% of children aged 0 to 8 years have touched smartphones and tablets. Also, among parents who have children's devices such as smartphones, about 20% say they have downloaded and purchased the app for their children.

Speaking of 0 to 8 years old, it is said that it is up to elementary school lower grade in Japan, but it is surprising that 53% of children touched smartphones and others. How about the situation in Japan?

◆ Diffusion of smartphones into low-aged people in Japan stagnating
The figure below is based on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced in February 2011"Survey on the Internet environment of young people"As a result of the results, the ownership of cell phones, personal computers, game machines side by side. Elementary school students' cell phone ownership rate is about 20%, which is somewhat different from the goo research results mentioned above. The survey year is September 1 - September 20, 2010.


In the same survey, I asked the target who answered that I have a mobile phone as well as their type, and it was said that there was no one who answered "primary smartphone" by elementary school student. Although the mainstream of mobile phones is shifting to smartphones nowadays, spread of smartphones to lower age seems to be stagnating.

◆ The use of the Internet by Japanese children is lower in advanced countries
The figure below shows the Internet usage status for children aged 6 to 9 years old. In Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, etc., the use of "SNS for children" shows extremely high numbers, whereas in Japan the use of e-mail is barely the same as that of other countries, the others are the lowest line number across the board.


◆ High school students mainly use the Internet
Internet usage situation has remained at a low percentage in the low age group, but in the survey for high school students, the Internet has come to the top of the medium which is used the most time. When you become a high school student, the time to touch mediums other than the Internet and television accounts for a majority of 0 - 15 minutes a day, and it is no longer possible to deliver information to this age other than these two media.


In Japan, the use of the Internet of the low age group has been reported strongly in terms of adverse side due to "school back site" and "dating system" etc. However, looking at the situation of other countries, the current situation that the use of the Internet is extremely low in the low age group and suddenly popularized in junior high and high school students is rather irregular. It is not necessary for future generations to be familiar with the Internet world and to understand its characteristics rather than touching the Internet for the first time by junior high and high school students who are in puberty, as elementary school students.