**: China News Network.
**Beijing, December 24 (Reporter Yu Zhanyi) The reporter learned from the Communist Youth League on the 23rd that the results of the "Fifth National Survey Report on the Internet Use of Minors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") were released in Beijing on the same day. According to the report, the scale of underage netizens in China will exceed 1 in 20229.3 billion, of which ninety percent of minors have their own Internet access equipment and mainly use mobile phones to access the Internet.
It is understood that on the occasion of the imminent implementation of the "Regulations on the Protection of Minors on the Internet" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), the Youth League ** Department for the Protection of Youth Rights and Interests, together with the China Internet Network Information Center and the China Youth New ** Association, held a seminar on the theme of "Publicity and Implementation of the "Regulations" to Help Growth" in Beijing on the 23rd. At the meeting, the Youth League ** Department for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Teenagers released the results of the "Fifth National Survey Report on the Internet Use of Minors" and released the product of "Youth Internet Literacy Open Course (Second Quarter)". More than 80 people attended the meeting, including deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, relevant functional departments, experts and scholars, industry associations, public welfare organizations, primary and secondary school students, parents and representatives.
Since 2018, the Youth League Protection Department and the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) have conducted a nationwide survey on minors' Internet use for five consecutive years, and released the research results to the public. The Fifth National Survey on Internet Use by Minors is based on a sample survey of 31,688 minor students, 11,624 parents, and 787 teachers in primary, junior high, high school, and secondary vocational schools in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government). The latest situation was introduced in terms of network security and protection of rights and interests, and the survey data in the past five years were comprehensively analyzed, the characteristics and laws were summarized, the change trend was studied, and work suggestions were put forward.
The report shows that the scale of underage netizens in China continues to expand, and the scale of underage netizens in 2022 has exceeded 19.3 billion. From 2018 to 2022, the Internet penetration rate of minors increased from 937% grew to 972%, basically reaching a saturated state. In the past five years, the Internet penetration rate of minors at the primary school level has increased from 895% to 951%。The gap between urban and rural minors in terms of internet penetration has continued to narrow, from 5 in 20184 percentage points to 10 percentage points. The breadth and depth of minors' use of the Internet has increased significantly, with ninety percent of minors owning their own Internet access devices and mainly using mobile phones to access the Internet, and more than two out of ten underage Internet users are using new smart devices such as smart watches, smart desk lamps, dictionary pens, and smart screens. The digitalization of education empowers minors to learn online, and the proportion of underage Internet users who believe that the Internet has had a positive impact on their learning has increased from 53 in 20180% to 77 in 20224%。The scale of short** users has increased significantly, and the proportion of underage netizens who often watch short** has increased from 40 in 20185% to 54 in 20221% and become an important channel for minors to obtain information. AI has received widespread attention from minors, with more than eighty percent of underage netizens saying they have heard of AI technology. The cybersecurity environment for minors has improved significantly, with 72 in 2022Four percent of underage internet users said they had not encountered a cybersecurity incident in the past year.
In the face of the new situation in which almost no one is online for minors in China, the report puts forward five suggestions in view of the existing problems such as the gap between urban and rural application levels, the young age of access to the Internet, the weak awareness of information screening, the superficial learning of online skills, and the lack of online legal education. The first is to promote the improvement of minors' online literacy, and promote more equitable use of the Internet by minors in urban and rural areas. The second is to unite the joint efforts of families, schools, and society to solve the problem of excessive Internet use by minors. The third is to improve the supervision of first-class applications and strengthen the positive guidance of content. Fourth, attach importance to new types of cyber security risks and hidden dangers, and strengthen cyber law enforcement and security education. Fifth, keep up with the development trend of artificial intelligence and support minors to better learn emerging network technologies. (ENDS).