Parents Connect Internet At Home With Their Child's Potential Success At School

Toronto, ON - Most parents believe Internet service at home provides greater opportunity for academic success for their children, according to a new Ipsos-Reid survey conducted on behalf of Bell Sympatico. The survey, fielded among 2151 parents of school-aged children (aged 5-17 years), revealed a number of glowing insights into what would appear to be a strong sense among most parents that there is a positively-related relationship between school-learning and Internet service at home.

For example, seven in ten parents interviewed (72%) strongly agree that "if use is supervised properly, having Internet service at home can give my children a great advantage in their academic pursuits". And six in ten (60%) say having Internet service at home is an extremely useful resource in helping their child achieve academic success.

Indeed, most parents would argue that Internet service at home is more than a helpful academic nicety and is an actual `must-have': fifty-nine percent strongly agree that more and more children need to have Internet access at home to complete their school assignments.

Children will be children, though, and many parents say Internet service at home often serves as a social or entertainment outlet for their child. When parents were asked to rank the top-three most common activities their child partakes in when using the Internet, the highest percentage rank "emailing/chatting/messenger with friends" (35%) first, with "gaming" (33%) following as the next most commonly first-ranked activity.

On average, parents say their child spend 9.5 hours a week on-line - working out to be a little over one hour a day. This is substantially more than what parents wish their child would spend on-line. Parents would like to see their child spend, on average, approximately 7.3 hours a week on-line. Consequently, two in three (66%) say they try to limit the amount of time their child spends on the Internet.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted from August 11th to August 15, 2005 via a regionally representative online Canadian sample of 2151 parents of a school-aged child (child age 5-17 years). For this sample, results can be considered accurate 95% of the time with a 2.1% margin of error, of what it would have been had this entire population been surveyed. *In this report, children aged 5-12 years are referred to as "elementary school aged" and those aged 13-17 are referred to as "secondary school aged".
Seven In Ten Parents (72%) Strongly Agree That Having Internet Service At Home Gives Their Child A "Great Advantage" In Their Academic Pursuits... Essentially all parents with a child in school (98%) agree that "if use is supervised properly, having Internet service at home can give my children a great advantage in their academic pursuits" - 72% of parents "strongly agree" with this notion. Only a very small portion (2%) disagrees with this statement. Most (60%) Describe Internet At Home As An "Extremely Useful Resource" In Helping Their Child Achieve Academic Success... When thinking about their child's education, 96% of parents agree that having Internet service available at home is a useful resource in helping their child achieve academic success - six in ten (60%) feel it is an "extremely useful resource". Just 4% of parents would describe Internet at home as "not useful" in this regard.

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• Agreement that having Internet service available at home is a useful resource for helping their child achieve academic success is consistent across all regions of the country except for Quebec where parents are significantly more likely than parents in the other regions to believe having Internet service at home is not a useful resource (10% in Quebec vs. 3% among the other regions of the country combined).

And Majority (59%) Strongly Agree Children Need Internet At Home To Complete School Assignments...

Nearly all parents (94%) agree, "more and more, children need to have Internet access at home to complete their school assignments" (59% strongly agree). Six percent disagree with this statement.

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• Those who believe the Internet at home is a useful academic resource for their children are significantly more likely than those who do not think it is a useful academic resource to agree that children need Internet access at home in order to complete school assignments (95% vs. 71%). 183
• Parents of a child in secondary school are more likely than those of parents of a child in primary school to agree with this statement (96% vs. 92%).

Parents Most Often Rank "Emailing/Chatting/Messenger With Friends" First As The Top Activity Their Child Partakes In When Using The Internet... As part of the survey, parents were asked to rank the top-three most common activities their child partakes in when using the Internet. Among the activities ranked first: thirty-five percent of parents point to "emailing/chatting/messenger with friends", 33% to "gaming", 17% to "studying/researching for school", 7% to "studying/researching for school", 7% to "downloading music", and 1% to "digital camera use".

• Parents in Saskatchewan/Manitoba (45%) are the most likely to rank "emailing/chatting/messenger" as the number one Internet activity their child takes part in. 183
• Parents in Quebec (40%) are the most likely to point to "gaming". 183
• Parents in Alberta (24%) and Ontario (21%) are the most likely to say "studying/researching for school". 183
• Parents with a child in secondary school are significantly more likely to rank "emailing/chatting/messenger with friends" first than are those with a child in elementary school (50% vs. 14%). 183
• Likewise, parents with a child in elementary school are significantly more likely to rank "gaming" first than are those with a child in secondary school (56% vs. 16%).

On Average, Parents Say Their Child Spends 9.5 Hours A Week On-Line - 16% Say More Than 19 Hours/Week... On average, parents say their child spends 9.5 hours a week on-line -- a little over one hour a day.

Broken down into ranges we see that when parents are asked how many hours their child spends on-line a week:

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• 26% say 1-3 hours, 183
• 20% say 4-6 hours, 183
• 23% say 7-11 hours, 183
• 14% say 12-18 hours, and 183
• 16% say 19 or more hours.

Of remaining parents, 1% say their child does not use the Internet and 1% are unsure how much time their child spends on-line.

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• A child of parents in Saskatchewan/Manitoba (10.6 hours), Ontario (10.4 hours), and British Columbia (10.1 hours) spend the most time per week on-line, while a child of parents in Alberta (7.8 hours) spend the least amount of time per week on the Internet.

...But, Parents Would Like To See Their Child Spend Less Time On-Line: On Average They Think Their Child Should Be Spending 7.3 Hours Per Week Using The Internet... On average, parents believe their child should be spending approximately 7.3 hours a week on-line - just over 2 hours less than the amount of time they believe their child currently does spend a week on-line (9.5 hours). Broken down into ranges we see that when parents are asked how many hours they think their child should be spending on-line a week:

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• 27% say 1-3 hours, 183
• 24% say 4-6 hours, 183
• 30% say 7-11 hours, 183
• 10% say 12-18 hours, and 183
• 6% say 19 or more hours.

The remaining 2% of parents say their child should not use the Internet at all during the week.

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• Parents in Atlantic Canada (6.2 hours), on average, would like to see their child spend the least amount of time on-line per week, followed parents in Alberta (6.4 hours), and Quebec (6.9 hours) - parents in Ontario would like to see their child spend the most time on the Internet (7.8 hours). 183
• As parents' age increases, they are more likely to believe their child should be spending a greater amount of time on the Internet a week (5.6 hours/week among parents aged 18-34, 7.1 hours/week among parents aged 35-54, and 8.9 hours/week among parents aged 55 and over). 183
• Fathers think their child should be spending more time on-line a week than do mothers (7.8 hours vs. 6.8 hours).

Consequently, Two In Three Parents (66%) Say They Try To Limit The Amount Of Time Their Child Spends On The Internet... Two in three parents (66%) say that they try to limit the amount of time their child spends on the Internet - one-third (34%) say they do not.

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• Parents in Quebec (63%) are the least likely to say that they try to limit the amount of time their child spends on the Internet.
• Mothers are more likely than fathers to say they try to limit their child's Internet use (71% vs. 61%).

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Paul Orovan
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900