U.S. Kids spend 42 Hours a Month on Average Online
August 17, 2009 by K12Genie Staff
Are you a typical U.S. parent? If so, according to a study done by the Symantec Corporation, owner’s of Norton Anti-virus, this means that you believe your children spend about 18 hours online each month. That’s only 4.5 hours a week.
Think again. If your son or daughter is a typical U.S. child, then he or she probably spends closer to 42 hours online a month, not 18 hours. That’s 10.5 hours a week or an hour and a half each day.
This information comes from The Norton Online Living Report. The survey was conducted online in 12 countries (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil) by Harris Interactive on behalf of Symantec between October 13th and December 5th, 2008. Participants consisted of over 6,000 adults 18 years old and older including 1,297 parents of children 8-17, and 2,614 children between 8-17 who were online at least one hour a month.
Here are more of their findings:
- Of the 12 countries, kids in Brazil spend the most time online with an average of 70 hours a month, while parents in Brazil believed their kids were online 56 hours a month.
- Kids in Brazil were also the most inclusive of their parents, including them on buddy lists 70% of the time.
- U.S. kids also lead the world on the number of online friends, averaging 83 online friends. Of the countries surveyed, Japanese kids had the lowest number of online friends at 13.
- Almost half of U.S. parents have reprimanded their child for doing something online they don’t approve of. Globally, 1 in 3 parents caught their kids engaging in online activity they don’t approve of.
- Kids in the U.S. lead the world in texting, with an average of 10 hours a week. The global average is four hours a week.
- Half of U.S. kids agree that IM and texting make learning to write more difficult.
To read more findings from the report, see our additional resources below.
For those parents or children looking for additional resources:
View the Report:
- Read the full report: Norton Online Living Report 2009
- View the Survey Data: Norton Online Living Report 2009 Survey Data
Websites:
Books:
- Online Lifeline: Internet Safety for Kids and Their Parents by Lawrence Fine
- How to Protect your Children on the Internet: A Road Map for Parents and Teachers by Gregory Smith
Shop for more books and resources at the K12Genie Store at Amazon.
