Teens online up to 8 hours a day: study: Researcher 'very concerned' about excessive users
BYLINE: Sarah Schmidt, CanWest News Service
SECTION: BODY & HEALTH; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 546 words
DATELINE: OTTAWA
OTTAWA - Some young teens are spending up to eight hours per day online, according to the initial findings of TeenTech, the first study in Canada to directly monitor their home Internet activities.
University of British Columbia educational psychologist Jennifer Shapka tracked the Internet use of young people aged 10 to 15 over a six-month period and determined daily use ranged from 0.2 to 8.2 hours.
From ages 11 to 13, kids are spending an average 0.38 hours using the Internet.
By age 14, their online activities jump dramatically to an average of 2.5 hours per day, including sending and receiving an average of 40 instant messages per day.
The most avid instant messenger in the pilot phase of the four-year study sent and received an average of 160 messages per day.
"That I find absolutely interesting," Ms. Shapka said.
"The range was really huge. There's not going to be a one-size-fits-all about why and how kids use the Internet."
Ms. Shapka is "very concerned" about the excessive Internet users.
"The average user is not using it in excessive ways or maladaptive ways. But there certainly are a group of kids I would be very concerned about, and how it links up with their development and other aspects of their life."
The researcher will be tracking 500 young people in 400 households through 2009 to determine how Internet use affects cognitive development, social skills and obesity rates. "No one has ever looked at it from all these development outcomes," she said.
The pilot phase of the project generated 13 million records and 44 gigabytes of data involving 25 youth from 20 households. While instant messaging is the online activity of choice for most these youth, Ms. Shapka found that one in four doesn't use instant messaging at all. She's worried this may be a sign of social isolation.
"What's going on with those kids?" she wondered. "Do they just not have friends or a buddy list?"
Theoretically, these kids are more likely to reach out to online strangers, making them more vulnerable to online predators, said Ms. Shapka. Further research will confirm or disprove this.
Social networking was the least popular activity among these young people, the pilot study found.
Only one in five visited social networking web sites such as a Facebook or MySpace. But of those who did visit such sites, half did not use instant messaging, suggesting a withdrawal into a virtual world, Ms. Shapka said.
Ottawa Grade 12 student Amanda Jenson said among her peers instant messaging is the most popular online activity through the later teen years. "You get messages pretty much all day long," she said.
Ms. Jenson, 17, said she spends between one to two hours online on weeknights and no more than three hours per day on weekends. She was troubled by the study's findings about the time spent online by youth who were excessive users.
Rather than using the computer, she said, "you should be actually communicating with these people -- you know, talking to them face to face."
Ms. Shapka is recruiting teens and their families across British Columbia for the next expanded phase of the $500,000 research project. The TeenTech project is funded, in part, by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund.
My Thoughts!
I think parents should be very concerned with the amount of time that their teen spend online. Any teen that has up to 8 hours to spend on the Internet, should have an organized activity to participate in. The risk of revealing too much personal information should be a trigger for parents to pay closer attention to their child's online activities.
I believe not only teens, but people in general are more likely to open their selves and their situations to people they do not know. Because of this, teens and adults can potentially become victims.
What are your thoughts?
BYLINE: Sarah Schmidt, CanWest News Service
SECTION: BODY & HEALTH; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 546 words
DATELINE: OTTAWA
OTTAWA - Some young teens are spending up to eight hours per day online, according to the initial findings of TeenTech, the first study in Canada to directly monitor their home Internet activities.
University of British Columbia educational psychologist Jennifer Shapka tracked the Internet use of young people aged 10 to 15 over a six-month period and determined daily use ranged from 0.2 to 8.2 hours.
From ages 11 to 13, kids are spending an average 0.38 hours using the Internet.
By age 14, their online activities jump dramatically to an average of 2.5 hours per day, including sending and receiving an average of 40 instant messages per day.
The most avid instant messenger in the pilot phase of the four-year study sent and received an average of 160 messages per day.
"That I find absolutely interesting," Ms. Shapka said.
"The range was really huge. There's not going to be a one-size-fits-all about why and how kids use the Internet."
Ms. Shapka is "very concerned" about the excessive Internet users.
"The average user is not using it in excessive ways or maladaptive ways. But there certainly are a group of kids I would be very concerned about, and how it links up with their development and other aspects of their life."
The researcher will be tracking 500 young people in 400 households through 2009 to determine how Internet use affects cognitive development, social skills and obesity rates. "No one has ever looked at it from all these development outcomes," she said.
The pilot phase of the project generated 13 million records and 44 gigabytes of data involving 25 youth from 20 households. While instant messaging is the online activity of choice for most these youth, Ms. Shapka found that one in four doesn't use instant messaging at all. She's worried this may be a sign of social isolation.
"What's going on with those kids?" she wondered. "Do they just not have friends or a buddy list?"
Theoretically, these kids are more likely to reach out to online strangers, making them more vulnerable to online predators, said Ms. Shapka. Further research will confirm or disprove this.
Social networking was the least popular activity among these young people, the pilot study found.
Only one in five visited social networking web sites such as a Facebook or MySpace. But of those who did visit such sites, half did not use instant messaging, suggesting a withdrawal into a virtual world, Ms. Shapka said.
Ottawa Grade 12 student Amanda Jenson said among her peers instant messaging is the most popular online activity through the later teen years. "You get messages pretty much all day long," she said.
Ms. Jenson, 17, said she spends between one to two hours online on weeknights and no more than three hours per day on weekends. She was troubled by the study's findings about the time spent online by youth who were excessive users.
Rather than using the computer, she said, "you should be actually communicating with these people -- you know, talking to them face to face."
Ms. Shapka is recruiting teens and their families across British Columbia for the next expanded phase of the $500,000 research project. The TeenTech project is funded, in part, by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund.
My Thoughts!
I think parents should be very concerned with the amount of time that their teen spend online. Any teen that has up to 8 hours to spend on the Internet, should have an organized activity to participate in. The risk of revealing too much personal information should be a trigger for parents to pay closer attention to their child's online activities.
I believe not only teens, but people in general are more likely to open their selves and their situations to people they do not know. Because of this, teens and adults can potentially become victims.
What are your thoughts?
posted by AISHA JACKSON at 6:28 PM
