TORONTO, Sept. 15 — Canada's Internet generation is generally a well-balanced and studious group, a new study says, as 75 per cent of Canadian kids surveyed said they go on-line to get help with homework and research for school.
Kids between 12 and 17 years of age were asked about the main things they look for when they go on-line, as part of the recent Back To School with the Internet Study, the third in a series of telephone surveys commissioned by AOL Canada Inc. and conducted Maritz Research (Canada).
Among the same group of surveyed kids, 66 per cent said that they also go on-line to look for music and movies; 52 per cent listed video games as one of their main areas of interest, and 43 per cent also listed entertainment and celebrity news or gossip.
Consistent with off-line behaviour for this age group, there is a distinct gender divide in kids' on-line behaviour. Outside of school work, girls' on-line habits tend towards music and movies (76 per cent compared to 57 per cent of boys), and other forms of entertainment or celebrity news (59 per cent versus 27 per cent). With boys, the most popular non-school related on-line pastimes include video gaming (76 per cent of boys; only 28 per cent of girls), and looking for Canadian news and sports information
(48 per cent boys; 30 per cent girls).
These gender-specific preferences are also highlighted in kids' in-school computer use. Some 56 per cent of Canadian kids surveyed state that when in computer class, they're focused on the school work they should be doing, rather than playing games, chatting, or surfing for their own entertainment.
However, 18 per cent of students admitted to using their in-school computer time for e-mail, instant messaging and chatting with friends. Of this group, 29 per cent of girls but only 8 per cent of boys are chatting more than they are working. On the flip side, within the 16 per cent of students who confessed to playing games while in computer class, 23 per cent are boys; only 9 per cent are girls.
Looking at on-line behaviour from a broader perspective, Canadian kids were also asked about the split between their use of the Internet for school work and for recreational reasons. Fifty-seven per cent of kids surveyed spend more time on the Internet for recreational use, compared with only 16 per cent who say they devote more of their Internet time to school work. More than double the amount of girls (23 per cent) compared to boys (9 per cent) are spending more time on the Internet for school-related reasons.
