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Record number of kids surf web for homework, music
London, Sept 30: Surfing the Web for homework tips and music tracks has drawn millions of Europe`s children online in the past year, making it the fastest-growing segment of the Internet population, a new study said on Tuesday.
London, Sept 30: Surfing the Web for homework tips and music tracks has drawn millions of Europe's children online in the past year, making it the fastest-growing segment of the Internet population, a new study said on Tuesday.
Some 13 million children under the age of 18 in eight countries surveyed surf the web for school work, games and music, a rise of some 27 percent over last year. Four million were under age 12, market researchers at Nielsen/Netratings said.
The findings from the survey covering Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. suggest that a plea from educators and politicians to add the Internet to school curricula and make high-speed Internet services cheaper as well as more accessible is paying off.
But it also stoked concerns among police and children's protection groups who caution that pedophiles are using the Internet in greater numbers to prey on children.
Last week, Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O announced it would shut down its chat rooms in 28 countries saying pedophiles were lurking in their MSN chat forums to meet unsuspecting children, a decision cheered by police.
The Netratings findings triggered once again a call by watchdog groups for parents to keep a vigilant eye on how their children use the Internet.
"The Internet can be a great tool for educational purposes and many children find it fun to use. However, parents should continue to monitor their children's activities and the amount of time they spend on the Internet, especially if they are using chatrooms," said Chris Atkinson, policy advisor for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
"The majority of kids are going online and looking at the same mainstream sites adults do. They are going online to portals, using email and chatting," Tom Ewing, an analyst with Netratings told Reuters.
Western Europe's largest population of Internet minors is the United Kingdom where 4.5 million children under 18 are regular surfers. Popular sites among British children are search engine Google.com and research site About.com, Netratings said.
Also, among the top five sites for UK children is file-sharing network Kazaa. Media and software companies have been trying to shut down file-sharing networks, saying they contribute to a black market of copyrighted materials.
"I would imagine there is an enormous amount of file sharing going on in this age range," Ewing added. Bureau Report
Some 13 million children under the age of 18 in eight countries surveyed surf the web for school work, games and music, a rise of some 27 percent over last year. Four million were under age 12, market researchers at Nielsen/Netratings said.
The findings from the survey covering Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. suggest that a plea from educators and politicians to add the Internet to school curricula and make high-speed Internet services cheaper as well as more accessible is paying off.
But it also stoked concerns among police and children's protection groups who caution that pedophiles are using the Internet in greater numbers to prey on children.
Last week, Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O announced it would shut down its chat rooms in 28 countries saying pedophiles were lurking in their MSN chat forums to meet unsuspecting children, a decision cheered by police.
The Netratings findings triggered once again a call by watchdog groups for parents to keep a vigilant eye on how their children use the Internet.
"The Internet can be a great tool for educational purposes and many children find it fun to use. However, parents should continue to monitor their children's activities and the amount of time they spend on the Internet, especially if they are using chatrooms," said Chris Atkinson, policy advisor for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
"The majority of kids are going online and looking at the same mainstream sites adults do. They are going online to portals, using email and chatting," Tom Ewing, an analyst with Netratings told Reuters.
Western Europe's largest population of Internet minors is the United Kingdom where 4.5 million children under 18 are regular surfers. Popular sites among British children are search engine Google.com and research site About.com, Netratings said.
Also, among the top five sites for UK children is file-sharing network Kazaa. Media and software companies have been trying to shut down file-sharing networks, saying they contribute to a black market of copyrighted materials.
"I would imagine there is an enormous amount of file sharing going on in this age range," Ewing added. Bureau Report