Young Pioneers Career Development Center: 2011 Survey Report on Internet/Social Network Usage among Chinese Minors

The China Young Pioneers Career Development Center released the "2011 China Minors' Internet/Social Network Usage Survey Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). This is the fifth time the agency has released the same series of reports in the past six years. This "Report" investigated and analyzed the basic situation of my country's minors' Internet use, online hot spots, minors' online social networking, and microblog use, and summarized the new characteristics and new trends of minors' online life: "Microblog has become a new way for minors to socialize online", "the online environment has not improved much", and "parents' attitudes towards their children's Internet use are still conservative".

“Being keen on online social networking is a need for a sense of identity”

The report selected "online social networking", a hot topic on the Internet in 2011, as a research topic. Survey data showed that 66.5% of the respondents used "QQ Chat", 15.6% used Renren, and the proportions of using Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo were 18.8% and 11.4% respectively.

"Society is becoming networked, and the network is also becoming socialized. Children's online social networking is part of this major trend," said Ji Lin, deputy director of the New Media Business Center of the China Young Pioneers Career Development Center.

The report analysis points out that minors mainly participate in online social networking through QQ chat and QQ space. In the past year, Weibo has also become a new way for minors to socialize online.

Li Nuo, a first-year junior high school girl at Beijing Zhongguancun Middle School, told me, "Most of my classmates use their mobile phones to surf the Internet, and the most used one is QQ." Lei Yi, a second-year senior boy at the school, said that he often visits the social networking site Renren. "Weibo is also very interesting," he said, "It allows me to get in touch with the latest news."

"Social networks are widely used among minors, and behind this is children's need to express themselves. Children's relationships also become closer in this process," said Yang Binyan, assistant researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of the China Youth Center, believes that minors' enthusiasm for online social networking stems from children's need for recognition. "By the age of around 10, children's need for recognition from their peers has become stronger than their need for recognition from family members."

Another important finding of the survey is that young children are increasingly surfing the Internet. The report points out: "If the age of 7 is taken as the cutoff, the proportion of preschool children surfing the Internet reaches 26.2%. With the popularity and spread of mobile phones and tablet computers, it has become a reality for young children to access the Internet to a certain extent, and 'young Internet users' need special attention." It is worth noting that young children surf the Internet unconsciously in many cases, influenced by their parents' surfing.

The mother of Qiqi, a senior student in the Chinese Academy of Sciences kindergarten, said: "My baby plays with iPad more often. I often download some early education games for her to play to promote her intellectual development. When she grows up, we will also control her Internet access." Liu Xin and Zhao Qing, a couple who returned from studying in the United States and are currently working in Zhongguancun, said that it is necessary to let children have access to the Internet from an early age. "American middle schools all use iPads for teaching, and we cannot fall behind."

However, Sun Yunxiao reminds parents to be cautious when using the Internet for young children. "Studies show that face-to-face contact is more beneficial to children's physical and mental development before the age of 9."

In addition, in Ji Lin's eyes, "there are not many websites specifically targeting children and with wide influence" is the main obstacle to guiding "young netizens". "Although there are more and more websites specifically targeting children in the past two years, such as Tencent Children, Mole Manor, and Future Network, there is still a long way to go before they can truly occupy the hearts of children." For this reason, "promoting the establishment of a number of websites specifically targeting minors" has become an important task that the investigators are working hard to promote.

"Parents are afraid of 'losing control'"

The report also pointed out that the survey data over the past six years showed that most parents tend to believe that the disadvantages of their children's use of the Internet outweigh the advantages, and their attitudes have hardly changed. The conclusion that "parents' attitudes remain conservative" is particularly prominent among the many new changes and trends.

Parents have their reasons for worrying. Ms. Lin, a parent of a second-year student at Zhongguancun Middle School, goes to the gate of the middle school every afternoon to pick up her child after school. "The pressure of studying is so great, and surfing the Internet wastes a lot of time. I only let him surf the Internet during holidays."

Another parent said that "the Internet will make children follow the crowd in their judgment" and "lack of independent thinking" are the reasons why she restricts her children from going online. Ms. Liu said helplessly: "There is nothing I can do. She insists on going online and I dare not criticize her. The more I criticize her, the more she will react."

In Sun Yunxiao's eyes, parents' concerns are understandable. "The world that the Internet brings to children is too vast, and parents are afraid of losing control."

Yang Binyan believes that parents' concerns are partly due to the media's exaggeration of the negative impact of Internet use on children. Some negative news about teenagers, such as poor grades, running away, bad behavior, and being abducted, are all linked to the Internet. "In fact, these news reports only reflect individual cases," she said.

Yang Binyan believes that there is a presupposition behind parents' concerns: the Internet world and the real world are completely separated. In fact, the Internet is part of the real world. The reasons for teenagers' poor academic performance and violent behavior are very complex, and the Internet may be just one of the factors. "Parents need to measure their children's growth from a broader perspective, and not just look for problems from whether they use the Internet."

Interestingly, the survey shows that many teenagers who are good at studying are also active users of the Internet, which is different from the inherent ideas of many parents. Sun Yunxiao believes that in the 21st century, the most important thing for students is the ability to manage knowledge and filter information - what is more important is not knowing the knowledge, but knowing where to find the knowledge. "The Internet is one of the effective means to train children to manage knowledge and filter information."

In addition, experts pointed out that parents should not underestimate their children's ability to judge. Surveys show that many children can distinguish between good and bad information sources and make their own judgments on the authenticity of information. For example, the "Internet social networking" survey shows that children rarely have offline contact with friends they only know online. They only use social networking sites to expand channels for contact between acquaintances, and their vigilance is quite high.

Ms. Liu's daughter Wang Qi said: "Most of my QQ friends are my teachers and seniors I know well. I can learn a lot from chatting with them. I am not very willing to chat with children of the same age."

The Internet does bring some negative effects to children, such as the habit of staying at home. Many children have reduced outdoor exercise and communication with others because they stay at home in front of the computer.

"Children's social interaction process should be as diverse and complex as possible. In real-life face-to-face contact, children can obtain information from the other person's eyes, movements, expressions, emotions, language and other aspects, which cannot be replaced by online communication," Sun Yunxiao believes.

"To reduce the negative impact, we should do so by developing real-life entertainment and communication. It would be unfair to restrict children's online life and it would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater," said Ji Lin.

“Using new media to create new conditions for children’s growth and development”

On the eve of Children's Day in 2006, the "China Minors' Internet Project" was launched under the guidance of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Central Civilization Office, and the State Council Information Office. The "Survey on Internet Usage of Chinese Minors" is the first content of this project - research work. "Only by understanding children can we understand what they need," said Li Wenge, deputy director of the National Committee of the Young Pioneers and director of the China Young Pioneers Career Development Center.

"Please note that the purpose of the Internet Pulse Project is by no means just to regulate harmful information." During the interview, Ji Lin repeatedly used the same tone to emphasize that this was a common misunderstanding by the public. "The more important thing is to allow children to access the Internet more conveniently, to truly use the Internet well, and to feel that it is good to access the Internet from the bottom of their hearts, that is, the so-called 'easy Internet access', 'good Internet access', and 'good Internet access'."

Yang Binyan also reminded that "the understanding of the Wangmai Project and the issue of minors using the Internet must be placed in the context of China's Internet development." As the Internet becomes more popular in China, the government, society and the public have a deeper understanding of the Internet. It was in this context that the Wangmai Project was launched.

"How to truly enable children to better master Internet skills and use them to develop their own thinking and abilities, so that they will not lag behind this era or children in other countries in terms of Internet use, this is our common hope," said Yang Binyan.

Because the actual implementation of the survey is affected by many factors, it is still difficult to conduct a survey on rural children, but the survey team also expressed their concern for rural children. For urban children, whether to go online or not is more about safety, health, science and other factors, but for rural children, whether they can effectively access the Internet is a matter of survival or elimination.

Yang Binyan believes that times are changing. "We cannot use our childhood to measure the lives of today's children. For adults, the advent of the Internet age is a big change, but for children, the Internet is the life they see as soon as they come into this world." The mother of a 3-year-old child concluded: "Children are the 'natives' of the Internet."

"We keep asking ourselves, what is the difference between studying Internet problems of minors and studying Internet problems of adults?" Ji Lin said.

"Children are both the present and the future. We must not only actively respond to the challenges that the Internet brings to the healthy growth of children, but also strive to use the Internet and other new media to create new conditions for children's growth and development," Li Wenge gave this answer.