More than 50 percent of teenage cyber-surfers in big cities across China want to surf the Internet more frequently, a survey conducted by the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has revealed.
Chinese teenagers spend an average of 30 minutes each day browsing the Internet, the survey shows.
With the assistance of the Information Center under the State Council, the CASS survey covered 5,000 primary and middle school students ageing from 10 to 18 in five major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Changsha.
A questionnaire mailshot reaped 4,804 valid answer sheets, showing 37.7 percent of interviewees are Net users.
Teenage Net surfers mostly play online games and visit online chatrooms. Some teenagers also use the Internet to check e-mail boxes, download pictures and software, use net search engines and read online news, the study shows.
More than 62 percent of interviewees said they play online games and 54.5 percent use online chatrooms.
Parents and teachers fear students who indulge in online games and chatting are harming their studies.
"If I had known this beforehand, I wouldn't have bought the computer," one parent told the Beijing-based Life Times.
However, the study found that Internet use does not affect students' studies. Net surfers have almost the same academic records as those who do not use the Internet.
Moreover, Net surfers do more academic activities after class and like to do more research on their favorite topics because they have the Internet as help. Teenage Net surfers do more than four hours of after-class academic activities per week while their offline counterparts do three hours, the survey revealed.
Statistics from China Internet Network Information Center showed that by the end of last year, Internet surfers in China numbered more than 22.5 million compared to a figure of just 15,000 in 1995.
Teenage cyber-surfers have contributed a lot to the Internet booming trend.
The CASS study shows 56 percent of senior middle school students in big cities across China are Net surfers while 36 percent of junior middle school students and 26 percent of primary school pupils are Net surfers.
Nearly 60 percent of teenage cyber-surfers go online at home, and the rest visit Internet cafes and their parents' or relatives' offices.
The study reveals that sohu.com, sina.com and 163.com are the top three websites which Chinese teenage surfers often browse.
Young cyber-surfers spend 60 percent of their online time browsing Chinese websites while using 25 percent and 15 percent of time to visit overseas Chinese websites and foreign websites respectively.
Some interviewees go to Internet cafes to pursue their interests and escape the supervision of parents and teachers.
Zhang Rongfang, a local teacher, put a proposal before the Beijing Municipal People's Congress session in May that Beijing should strengthen its management of all Internet bars to protect youngsters from any unhealthy effects.
(China Daily 09/17/2001)
