ENGLISH
TABLE 1
PROPORTION OF RESPONDENTS’ INTERNET USE
Age Internet use (%)
10 years 52
11 years 64
12 years 63
13 years 68
14 years 77
15 years 73
16 years 71
ENGLISH
Results on frequency of Internet use (Table 2) show that the majority of respondents (85% of the sample) access the Internet at least once a week. Most children with higher family incomes (66%) and in the classes AB (69%) access the Internet every day or almost every day, while most of the lower classes (DE with 53%) access the Internet less frequently – i.e. once or twice a week. These results indicate that the Internet is highly present in the lives of these children, especially the older ones: more than half mentioned accessing every day or almost every day:
13- to 14-year-olds at 53% and 15- to 16-year-olds at 56%.
TABLE 2
FREqUENCy OF INTERNET USE By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Frequency General
(%)
Age group (%) Social Class (%) 9 - 10
years 11 - 12 years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
Every day or almost every day 47 36 43 53 56 66 45 17
Once or twice a week 38 45 41 34 32 29 39 53
Once or twice a month 10 12 12 9 8 3 10 24
Less than once a month 5 7 4 4 4 1 6 7
Does not know – – 1 – – – – –
The age at which children first accessed the Internet presents no major distinctions among respondents (Table 3). The only fact that stands out is an increase in the years after literacy, when they gain more autonomy to pursue their interests and enjoy more ease of use. This is most persistent among 8- to 10-year-olds (46%), as noted in responses among younger respondents – 56% of 9- to 10-year-olds and 54% of 11- to 12-year-olds reported having accessed the worldwide web for the first time in this age group. This also indicates that Internet access is an increasingly common practice among younger children.
TABLE 3
AGE AT FIRST INTERNET ACCESS By AGE GROUP
Age General
(%)
Age Group (%)
9 - 10 years 11 - 12 years 13 - 14 years 15 - 16 years
Up to 6 years 9 14 12 5 5
7 years 8 21 8 4 2
8 years 13 23 13 11 6
9 years 14 24 17 11 7
10 years 19 9 24 22 18
11 years 9 0 13 16 7
12 years 10 0 8 12 17
More than 12 years 12 0 0 11 32
Does not remember 7 9 5 7 5
ENGLISH
There are different devices for Internet access (Table 4): some respondents mentioned using a mobile phone (21%), which in general is for personal use, or a personal desktop computer (20%). However, the most common means of access among respondents are a family-shared desktop computer (38%) or laptop (9%). Internet access via other devices (video games consoles, tablets, or televisions) is little cited, which indicates that these possibilities of access to the World Wide Web are not yet common in Brazil among the public interviewed.
TABLE 4
EqUIPMENT USED TO ACCESS ThE INTERNET By FAMILy INCOME AND SOCIAL CLASS
Equipment General
(%)
Family Income (%) Social Class (%)
Up to 1 MW
More than 1 MW up to
2 MW
More than 2 MW up to
3 MW
More than
3 MW AB C DE
Shared PC
(desktop computer) 38 13 31 28 59 60 33 14
Mobile phone 21 14 16 21 26 25 22 12
Personal PC
(desktop computer) 20 12 16 21 27 26 20 9
Personal (or frequently used) laptop that may be used in the bedroom
10 7 4 7 19 16 8 3
Laptop that cannot be used in the bedroom
9 6 8 8 10 15 8 3
Games console,
such as PlayStation 3 1 2 4 4 5 3 1
Tablet 2 1 1 1 5 3 2 –
Television set (TV) 1 – 1 1 1 3 1 –
Other 16 37 22 8 5 4 16 42
The main differences in where children access the Internet (Table 5) are related to the opportunities available. Those with the highest family incomes (51%) and in socioeconomic classes AB (49%) have greater Internet access in the different location options, except LAN houses, as they are presumably students from private schools and/or equipped with more technological resources. This is also true of those who access the Internet at home, in a shared environment such as the living room (61%), or in their own bedrooms (38%). Interestingly, it is also the respondents from higher social classes who report accessing in the homes of relatives (45%) or friends (36%). More than half of low income respondents (53%) mention accessing the Internet at LAN houses or cybercafés.
ENGLISH
Those who most mentioned accessing the Internet while ‘out and about’ via mobile phone are older – 13- to 14-year-olds at 25% and 15- to 16-year-olds at 26% – and in the higher classes (AB, 20%) and middle class (C, 18%). This indicates that Internet access occurs more in private than public places.
TABLE 5
LOCATION OF ACCESS TO ThE INTERNET By FAMILy INCOME AND SOCIAL CLASS
Location of access General
(%)
Family Income (%) Social Class (%) Up to
1 MW
More than 1 MW up to
2 MW
More than 2 MW up to
3 MW
More than
3 MW AB C DE
School 42 41 36 43 51 49 39 39
Living room
(or other public room) 40 20 28 48 63 61 36 12
Relatives’ home 38 31 37 40 45 45 38 23
LAN house or cybercafé 35 53 40 29 18 15 39 57
Friends’ home 34 27 35 31 38 36 34 26
Bedroom
(or other private room) 26 13 22 28 39 38 25 10
‘Out and about’ by mobile phone 18 12 14 17 23 20 18 11
Library or other
public place 4 4 4 2 7 2 5 4
Telecenter 1 2 1 1 1 – 1 2
Another aspect worth mentioning is the time spent on the Internet by the children participating in the survey on a weekday (Table 6), which is, in general, 1 hour (54%) and up to 2 hours (74%). However, among older children (13 and over), 26% spend more than 4 hours online on a weekday. Comparing the data for those who most access the Internet, age and social class indicate some distinctions among respondents. Of the younger respondents (under 12), most spend up to 1 hour connected to the web: 71% for 9- to 10-year-olds and 56% for 11- to 12-year-olds. Those over 13 years of age devote more time to accessing the Internet, which may suggest less control by parents or legal guardians.
Most of those respondents in classes DE (70%) access the Internet up to 1 hour on a weekday, while only 43% of children in classes AB cited this as the maximum. As 57% of lower class respondents use public places such as LAN houses or cybercafés (Table 4), which likely require payment for access, they probably optimize their time to restrict the period to less than 1 hour of use.
ENGLISH TABLE 6
TIME SPENT ON ThE INTERNET ON WEEKDAyS By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Time General
(%)
Age Group (%) Social Class (%)
9 - 10
years 11 - 12
years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
Up to 1 hour 54 71 56 48 41 43 54 70
From 1.5 hours to 2 hours 20 14 25 20 21 22 20 15
From 2.5 hours to 3 hours 9 7 7 9 14 11 10 2
From 3.5 hours to 4 hours 4 2 2 6 7 7 4 1
More than 4 hours 8 1 5 12 14 14 7 3
None of the above 3 4 3 3 3 2 4 4
Don’t know 1 2 2 1 1 0 1 4
Comparing the time respondents spend on the Internet (Table 7) during the week and on weekends shows that the number of hours increases on weekends. One might deduce that the respondents have more time to devote to this activity, and possibly to leisure and/or entertainment activities in general.
TABLE 7
TIME SPENT ON ThE INTERNET ON WEEKDAyS AND WEEKENDS
Time Weekdays
(%)
Weekends (%)
Up to 1 hour 54 30
From 1.5 hours to 2 hours 20 22
From 2.5 hours to 3 hours 9 11
From 3.5 hours to 4 hours 4 8
More than 4 hours 8 16
None of the above 3 12
Don’t know 1 2
Clearly, respondents spend more time on the Internet on weekends (Table 8); however, the younger respondents (44% of 9- to 10-year-old children) report only being connected up to 1 hour. As age increases, so does weekend time spent accessing the Internet. This may indicate that these young teenagers do so for leisure and/or entertainment. This tends to increase among respondents from higher social classes (AB), since 26% report devoting more than 4 hours to accessing the Internet.
ENGLISH
TABELA 8
TIME SPENT ON ThE INTERNET ON WEEKENDS By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Time General
(%)
Age Group (%) Social Class (%)
9 - 10
years 11 - 12
years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
Up to 1 hour 30 44 28 27 23 23 31 40
From 1.5 hours to 2 hours 22 16 26 26 20 20 23 25
From 2.5 hours to 3 hours 11 8 13 10 12 13 11 4
From 3.5 hours to 4 hours 8 7 6 8 7 10 7 2
More than 4 hours 16 6 12 17 26 26 14 4
None of the above 12 17 12 9 11 7 13 20
Don’t know 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 5
Of those interviewed, 70% report having their own profile on a social networking site, with a higher incidence among older children: 13- to 14-year-olds at 80% and 15- to 16-year- olds at 83%. Facebook appears with a higher incidence (61%) among respondents with social networking profiles, especially among older teenagers (15- to 16-year-olds at 72% and 13- to 14-year-olds at 67%), followed by Orkut, which represents 39% (Table 9). The latter is more common among younger children (9- to 10-year-olds at 54% and 11- to 12-year-olds at 51%), and lower socioeconomic classes (DE), at 64%.
TABLE 9
RESPONDENTS WITh PERSONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Social Network General
(%)
Age Group (%) Social Class (%)
9 - 10
years 11 - 12
years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
Facebook 61 46 49 67 72 76 57 36
Orkut 39 54 51 32 28 24 42 64
Google+ – – – 1 – – – –
Almost half the sample (49%) reported having less than 101 contacts on their social networking profiles. As shown in Table 10, the majority of these are younger (86% are 9- to 10-year- olds) and of a lower social class (56% are DE classes). The majority of those with less than 51 contacts in their social networking profiles are also younger (63%) and of a lower social class (37%).
ENGLISH TABLE 10
NUMBER OF CONTACTS ThAT RESPONDENTS hAVE ON ThEIR SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Number General
(%)
Age Group (%) Social Class (%)
9 - 10
years 11 - 12
years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
Up to 10 6 12 8 5 2 4 6 8
11-50 21 51 28 16 8 21 20 29
51-100 22 23 25 23 17 17 24 19
101-300 29 9 28 32 36 34 26 28
More than 300 21 4 10 24 36 23 22 15
Don’t know/ Don’t remember 1 0 1 1 2 1 2 1
Those interviewed showed no concern about the information made available on social networking sites (Table 11): just over half the sample (56%) responded that they leave their information open for either “friends and friends of friends” or “everyone” to see. Virtually all respondents (98%) knew about the privacy settings on their social networking profiles, as only 2% did not know what kind of setup they had.
TABLE 11
TyPE OF PRIVACy CONFIGURATION ThAT RESPONDENTS hAVE ON ThEIR SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES
Configuration type General
(%)
Private, so that only friends can see 42
Partially private, so that friends and friends of friends can see 31
Public, so that everyone can see 25
Don’t know 2
Key among the Internet activities conducted by the users surveyed (Table 12) are school work (82%), visiting social networking profiles/pages such as on Facebook or MySpace (68%), and watching videos such as on YouTube (66%). The results show that as age increases, users spend more time on online activities. The activity most frequently mentioned by the younger children (9- to 10-year-olds) was school work (68%) and playing games with others on the Internet (59%) – i.e. fun/entertainment is also common for them.
ENGLISH
TABLE 12
INTERNET ACTIVITIES FOR RESPONDENTS By AGE GROUP AND SOCIAL CLASS
Activities General
(%)
Age Group (%) Social Class (%) 9 - 10
years 11 - 12 years 13 - 14
years 15 - 16
years AB C DE
School work 82 68 85 87 87 81 83 82
Visiting a social networking profile/page
(such as Orkut or Facebook) 68 44 66 77 80 76 68 49
Watching videos
(such as on YouTube) 66 53 65 69 76 77 66 44
Playing games with other
people on the Internet 54 59 60 48 51 63 50 52
Using instant messaging
with friends or contacts 54 28 52 64 69 65 52 38
Sending/receiving e-mails 49 19 48 59 67 57 49 34
Downloading music or films 44 18 36 56 63 53 41 39
Reading/watching the news 42 16 36 47 66 48 40 40
Posting photos, videos, or music 40 14 35 51 57 49 39 30
Posting messages on a site 24 9 20 32 33 31 23 15
Spending time in a virtual world 17 12 21 18 16 21 16 13
Creating a character, pet, or avatar 16 10 22 17 15 18 17 13
Using a webcam 14 6 13 16 18 20 12 6
Visiting a chat room 12 5 11 13 16 10 12 12
Writing a blog or online diary 10 5 6 15 13 16 8 3
Using file-sharing sites 6 1 4 7 12 7 7 1
Considering that older users may have greater autonomy in accessing social networking sites, frequency of Internet use by 11- to 16-year-olds was also assessed. As shown (Table 13), the majority use the Internet every day or almost every day for personal relationships, whether through social networking or by email, with both at 53%. The lowest percentage (13%) for an activity that teenagers perform every day or almost every day is for school work. This is even more frequent for the youngest respondents.
ENGLISH TABLE 13
FREqUENCy OF INTERNET ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT By RESPONDENTS AGED 11 TO 16
Type Every day
or almost every day
Once or twice a week
Once or twice a month
Don’t know Visiting a social networking
profile/page (such as Orkut or Facebook)
53 35 12 0
Using instant messaging with
friends or contacts 53 35 11 0
Posting messages
on a site 39 46 14 1
Sending/receiving e-mails 39 46 15 0
Watching videos
(such as on YouTube) 37 44 19 0
Playing games with other
people on the Internet 35 45 19 1
Downloading music or films 32 48 19 1
Reading/watching
the news 31 47 21 1
Posting photos,
videos, or music 24 43 31 1
School work 13 49 38 0