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2.3 Greatest benefit for children on the Internet

MNet found that 66 per cent of parents lauded the educational possibilities available to children on the Internet as the single greatest benefit of the new medium.

Annenberg found that 84 per cent of U.S. parents thought the Internet was a "help with school work" for their children.

Without identifying any specific area of benefit, Bertelsmann did find that of those parents with Internet access, 86 per cent of Australians, 81 per cent of Americans and 77 per cent of Germans are convinced there are advantages associated with having access to the Internet. However, Bertelsmann discovered a high degree of skepticism about the existence of any benefits among those survey participants without Internet access. Thus, when responses from both those with and those without access to the Internet were combined for this question, it revealed that 73 per cent of Americans, 70 per cent of Australians and 57 per cent of Germans attribute mainly positive benefits to the Internet. The report posits that it is reasonable to believe the German survey participants were less likely to feel there were positive attributes to be found on the Internet due to the extremely high number of parents who lack first-hand Internet experience in that country.

2.4 Greatest concern for children on the Internet

The possibility of children accessing inappropriate sites and material on the Internet was the greatest single concern, reported by 51 per cent of parents in the MNet study. Parents considered the following to be inappropriate: sites featuring pornography (31 per cent), inappropriate sites in general (26 per cent), violent content (three per cent) and hate sites (two per cent).

Annenberg reported that 76 per cent of American parents had concerns about their child accessing sexually explicit material.

Bertelsmann found 35 per cent of American, 25 per cent of Australian and 25 per cent of German parents reported some concern about their children accessing inappropriate material of varying types.

Figure 1.1
Content of greatest concern to parents
whose children use the Internet

2.5 Controlling Internet access

MNet found that 54 per cent of Canadian parents believe that protection from inappropriate content on the Internet should be a matter of personal responsibility.

Bertelsmann found that 69 per cent of Americans and only 36 per cent of Germans accepted this belief. In a similar question, 48 per cent of Australians, 36 per cent of Americans and 25 per cent of Germans said they "consider the individual Internet user as the best guarantor of an effective control of inappropriate content."

2.6 Location of child's Internet use

The MNet study determined that Canadian children most often access the Internet from their homes (81 per cent), their schools (66 per cent), a friend's home (35 per cent), a public library (19 per cent), a parent's workplace (nine per cent), or a community access point (five per cent).

Annenberg found that 63 per cent of all children accessed the Internet from their home, 74 per cent from school (including those without home access), 25 per cent from a friend's home, 18 per cent from a public library and one per cent from a community access point.

Figure 1.2

Comparison of the Media Awareness Network
and Annenburg studies reveals differences in
where parents think their children
are accessing the Internet
 

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