US youth losing the race for Internet

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-25  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FEWER young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Britain and China's Macau Special Administration, a survey of 13 countries and regions around the world has showed.

Among 12 to 14-year-olds, 100 percent of British youth use the Internet, followed by Israel at 98 percent, the Czech Republic and Macau at 96 percent and Canada at 95 percent, according to the World Internet report by the Center for the Digital Future.

By contrast, only 88 percent of Americans of the same age had access, trailed by Hungary and Singapore, where more than seven in 10 young people use the Internet.

For the report by the Center for the Digital Future, headed by Jeff Cole at the University of Southern California, researchers in 13 countries talked to more than 25,000 people in Asia, Australia, North and South America and Europe in late 2007 and early 2008.

The report showed the United States trails other countries in older groups, too.

US Internet usage by those over 18 runs behind Sweden, New Zealand and Canada.

Recently, US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin unsuccessfully proposed a universal service fund to promote high-speed Internet access, similar to the one for telephone service.

Martin also advocates new spectrum for wireless in the US to facilitate Internet access and held a joint news conference with Larry Page, a founder of Google Inc, to promote the idea.

The report, issued annually in the US and for the first time worldwide, said mobile phones are used for Internet access "by a very small percentage of users, with the exception of the UK."

But that may be out of date. A monthly bulletin issued by Norwegian software maker Opera Software shows mobile phone Internet access exploding outside the US, especially in Southeast Asia.