Portuguese Youth 10 to 15 Years are Top Users of Computers and Internet

The most impressive data of the survey on ICT use by families for youngsters 10 to 15 years old, relative to the 1st quarter of 2010, are:

• 91% use the Internet, both girls and boys. The use of the Internet is 100% among students in the 3rd cycle of basic schooling (7th to 9th grade).
• 84% use the Internet at home, much more than the double of 2005 (when it was 32%)
• 67% claim using the Internet every day or almost every day, nearly the triple of 2005 (when it was 24%).
• The main activities of youngsters 10 to 15 years old who use the Internet are: searching for information for school work (97%), messaging in chats, blogs, social networking websites, newsgroups, online discussion forums or real time written messages (86%), email (86%), games or downloading games, pictures, movies or music (79%), browsing websites of personal interest (63%), uploading personal content on a website to be shared (55% ), searching for health information (47%).
• 96% use computers, both girls and boys. The use of computer is 100% among students in the 3rd cycle of basic schooling (7th to 9th grade).
• 92% use computers at home, 1.6 times the value for 2005 (when it was 57%).
• 77% declare using computers every day or almost every day, 1.7 times the value for 2005 (when it was 46%).
• The main activities youngsters 10 to 15 years old who use computers declare doing are: school work (93%), listening to music or watching movies (84%), games (84%), use of educational software (54%).
• 87% use mobile phones, 1.4 times the value for 2005.

These data show a very high use of Internet and computers by the youth 10 to 15 years old (respectively, 91% and 96%), more than 1.8 times the corresponding values for people 16 to 74 years old (respectively 51% and 55%). The use of the Internet at home and the use of the Internet every day or almost every day had particularly high increases as they are in 2010, respectively, 2.6 times and the triple of the values for 2005.

On the other hand, the surveys held within thje EU Kids Online Project in 23 European countries, with interviews of youngsters 9 to 16 years old held in the Spring and Summer of 2010, provide information on the nature and sophistication of Internet use , in particular:

• Social Networks: 58% of the youngsters 9 to 16 years old in Portugal have a profile in at least one social networks, a value higher but close to the average of the 23 European countries considered (57%), and more than the double of that for people 16 to 74 years old (25%) by the Study “Internet Use in Portugal 2010” within the World Internet Project (text in Portuguese) carried out by the LINI – Lisbon Internet and Networks Institute with the support of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and with data collected in interviews held 14-25 of May 2010. 8.7% of the youngsters 9 to 16 years old in Portugal have more than 300 contacts in the social network profile they mostly use, the 5th higher percentage in the 23 countries considered (average 5.1%), following United Kingdom (10.4%), Greece (10.3%), Ireland (9.3%) and Slovenia (9.1%). 16.2% of the youngsters 9 to 16 years old have more than 100 contacts, the 13th higher percentage in the 23 countries considered (average 16.5%). Portugal is one of the countries whose youth 9 to 16 years old with profiles in social networks are more careful in not revealing personal information to unknown people.
• Literacy and Safety on the Internet: 3.7 is the average of positive answers of youngsters 11 to 16 years old in Portugal (the 6th higher among the 23 countries considered, in which the maximum was 4.6 in Finland) to 8 questions on Internet literacy and safety skills: Bookmarking Internet sites, Comparing different Internet sites to decide which information is true, Blocking advertisements or undesired mail, Finding information on how to use safely the Internet, Blocking messages from unknown people, Changing the privacy levels in social networks profiles, Erasing the register of Internet sites visited, Modifying the preferences in content filters.
• Bullying: 0.2% and 2.3% of the youngsters 9 to 16 years old in Portugal were, respectively, aggressors and victims in bullying incidents, when the averages in the 23 countries considered are, respectively, 3% and 6%. Portugal has, respectively, the lowest and the 2nd lower value of the 23 countries (averages of 3% and 6%, respectively).

Finally, the data from surveys held in 2009 within the OECD PISA provide a interesting information and also the possibility of comparison with other countries for 15 years old youngsters (see the data on Education and ICT Training of the publication The Information Society in Portugal 2010). In particular, among the 25 country members of EU and OECD considered in the surveys (for some indicators the dada exist only for 17 countries but for the majority of indicators there is data for more than 20 countries), Portugal is:

• 1st in students who:
  • use email to communicate with classmates about homework (54%), well above the average of the 25 OECD countries considered (34%);
  • say they can create a database very well without help (46%), well the above average (27%);
  • say they are able to create a presentation very well without help (90%), 1.6 times the percentage of six years earlier and well above the average (71%). This 1st place is among boys, among girls, among students of the highest socio-economic and cultural status (top quartile) and among students of the lowest socio-economic and cultural status (bottom quartile). Portugal is the 2nd country with the lowest difference (10 percentage points) in this indicator between students with the highest and the lowest socio-economic and cultural status, well below the average (18 percentage points); six years before the difference in Portugal was of 23 percentage points, much larger than the average difference (18 percentage points);
  • say they are able to create a multimedia presentation (sound, image and video) very well without help (72%), well above the average (54%) and almost the double of six years earlier (37%); this 1st place is among boys, among girls and among students of the highest socio-economic and cultural status, and the 2nd place among students of the lowest socio-economic and cultural status.
• 2nd in students who:
  • use the Internet to do homework (61%), well above the average (46%).
  • use email to communicate with teachers (25%), well above the average (14%).
• 3rd in students who:
  • use laptop computers in school (25%), well above the average (19%).
  • say they are able to edit digital photographs or other graphic images very well without help (76%), well above the average (60%).
  • say they are able to use a spreadsheet to plot a graph very well without help (68%), well above the average (50%) and 1.3 times the percentage of six years before. Portugal is the 6th country with the lowest difference in this indicator between students of the highest and the lowest socio-economic and cultural status (10 percentage points), well below the average (14 percentage points); six years earlier the difference in Portugal was 16 percentage points, slightly above average difference (15%).
• 5th in students who:
  • have access to the Internet at school (97%), above the average (93%).
  • use computers at school for group work and to communicate with colleagues (28%), above the average (22%).
  • post work on the school website (12%), well above the average (9%).
• 6th in students who do individual homework on a school computer (18%), equal to the average (18%).
• 7th in students who:
  • used a computer at least once (99.6%), above the average (99.2%). In Portugal this percentage is higher in students of the lowest socio-economic and cultural status (99.9%) than in students of the highest socio-economic and cultural status (99.7%).
  • have computer at home (98%), above the average (94%) and 1.7 times the percentage of six years before. It is also the 7th in this indicator among students of the lowest socio-economic and cultural status (94%), well above the average for the OECD countries considered (83%) and more than 4 times the percentage of nine years before. The difference between students from the highest and the lowest socio-economic and cultural status was drastically reduced to only 6 percentage points when nine years ago it was 73 percentage points.
  • use Internet at school for school work (41%), above the average (39%).
  • download, upload or browse at school materials from the school website (18%), above the average (15%).
• 8th in students who:
  • use e-mail at school (24%), above the average (19%).
  • download, upload or browse materials from the website of the school (27%) at home, above the average (23%).
  • do homework on the computer at home (48%), close to but below average (50%).
• 9th in students who use computer at home (97%), above the average (93%). The difference between students from the highest and the lowest socio-economic and cultural status is 7 percentage points, well below the average difference (15 percentage points).
• 13th in students with Internet access at home (91%), nearly four times the percentage of nine years before. There was a high increase in the last nine years among students of the highest socio-economic and cultural status (from 58% in 2000 to 99% in 2009), but the increase was huge for the lower socio-economic and cultural status (from 4% to 79%). There was a substantial reduction of differences in opportunities between these two groups of students: the difference is now of 19 percentage points when it was of 54 percentage points nine years before.

These are very positive results regarding the use of ICT by young people in Portugal that reveal the effectiveness of measures to encourage the use of the Internet and computers for school age youngsters, including the high reduction of the differences between groups of the highest and the lowest socio-economic and cultural levels.