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Section 1: Introduction

The Media Awareness Network's Canada's Children In A Wired World: The Parents' View, is the most recent in a series of similar studies conducted in countries where at-home Internet use is on the rise. While no two of the surveys ask exactly the same questions, there are many similarities in the overall findings that are worth noting. This comparison of three similar studies provides an international context in which to view the results of Canada's Children in a Wired World: The Parents' View.

Risk Assessment and Opinions concerning the Control of Misuse on the Internet, was sponsored by Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation in association with the Australian Broadcasting Authority. The Bertelsmann study, released in June 1999, surveyed a total of 3,626 parents (1003 in the United States , 1,200 in Australia, and 1423 in Germany) and focused on the 2,011 who had home Internet access (698 in the U.S., 718 in Australia and 605 in Germany) to get an overall sense of attitudes towards Internet use and technology in those countries, specifically focusing on Internet content issues and the degree of concern parents had about children's online safety. The Australian version of survey was abbreviated, thus full comparative results for all questions are not available.

The Bertelsmann study shows that the majority of its respondents generally do not favour viewing the media as an unrestricted phenomenon that is totally disconnected from society's values. They would rather examine possibilities for the censorship and control of certain objectionable media content, such as child pornography and extreme violence. Ideas about how to implement this control range from self-monitoring to government-sponsored filters and mandatory site ratings. The discussion about control and free choice in the new media has only come about very recently, and is in varying stages of development in those countries with widespread Internet access. Whereas the discussion is at a relatively advanced level in the United States due to the overall saturation of advanced technology, Germany is only in the initial stages of assessing the risks and benefits associated with the Internet.

The other major study which was released last year (May 1999) is The Internet and the Family: The View from Parents, The View from the Press, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and produced by Joseph Turow. One thousand, one hundred American parents with home PCs were interviewed by Roper Starch in late 1998 for the first part of the study. An examination of media articles about Internet issues comprised the second part of the project.

The Annenburg study's primary conclusion, based on the opinions of parents in the survey, is that:

"The majority of American parents with computers at home juggle the dream and the nightmare of the Internet at the same time. The rush to connect the Web to U.S. homes is happening despite parents' substantial insecurities about it. Most parents with online connections at home are deeply fearful about the Web's influence on their children. For example, over 75 per cent of these parents are concerned that their children might give out personal information and view sexually explicit images on the Internet."

Section 2: Specific subjects of examination

2.1 Internet access

The Media Awareness Network (MNet) survey found that in Canadian households with children between the ages of six and 16, with a PC in the home, 73 per cent have access to the Internet.

The Annenberg study found that 61 per cent of U.S. parents with children aged 8 to 17 have Internet access either at home or at their workplace.

The Bertelsmann study found that 70 per cent of U.S., 60 per cent of Australian and just 14 per cent of German households have Internet access either at home or in the workplace. Furthermore, 61 per cent of American, 55 per cent of Australian, and 20 per cent of German parents indicated their children have Internet access at home or elsewhere.

2.2 Encounters with sexually explicit material

MNet discovered that 21 per cent of the Canadian parents surveyed believe that their child has come in contact with sexually explicit material on the Internet, and the greatest concern for 31 per cent of the parents surveyed is that their child will come in contact with such material.

The Annenberg study also explored the degree to which parents worried about their child coming in contact with sexually explicit material, finding that 76 per cent did worry about this, either "strongly" or "somewhat".

Bertelsmann found that 20 per cent of both U.S. and German Internet users, and fifteen per cent of Australian users have come into contact with "inappropriate pornographic depictions" while on the Internet. Additionally, 63 per cent of German, 58 per cent of Australian and 67 per cent of U.S. parents would block pornography and sexual depictions "by all means."

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