US youth have lots to catch up on the Internet

Fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries and areas around the world 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 Macao 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.

Separately, a bulletin by a software company showed mobile phone access to the Internet burgeoning outside the United States, especially in Southeast Asia.

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 Center 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.

The Center report, issued annually in the United States 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 United Kingdom."

As of June 30, 2008, 1.463 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats. During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet users grew by 100 percent per year.

The Unites States accounts 220.1 millions users of Internet, which take 15 percent of all users. The population of the Unites States is 305 million, which takes 3 percent of world.

一項(xiàng)針對全球13個(gè)國家和地區(qū)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)使用率調(diào)查顯示，與捷克、加拿大、澳門和英國相比，美國年輕人的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)使用率較低。

該項(xiàng)由“數(shù)字化未來”中心發(fā)布的《世界互聯(lián)網(wǎng)研究報(bào)告》稱，12歲至14歲青少年的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)使用率在英國是100%，其次是以色列，為98%，捷克和澳門為96%，加拿大為95%。

而美國的這一比例僅為88%，之后是匈牙利和新加坡，這兩個(gè)國家有超過70%的年輕人使用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。

另據(jù)一家軟件公司發(fā)布的報(bào)告，手機(jī)上網(wǎng)在美國以外的一些國家和地區(qū)悄然興起，尤其在東南亞地區(qū)。

“數(shù)字化未來”中心為了編撰該報(bào)告，邀請了13個(gè)國家的研究人員從去年年底至今年年初對亞洲、澳大利亞、南北美洲和歐洲的25000多人進(jìn)行了調(diào)查。“數(shù)字化未來”中心的負(fù)責(zé)人是美國南加州大學(xué)的杰夫•科爾。

調(diào)查報(bào)告顯示，美國年齡較大人群的網(wǎng)絡(luò)使用率也落后于其他國家。美國18歲以上人群的網(wǎng)絡(luò)使用率落后于瑞典、新西蘭和加拿大。

美國聯(lián)邦通信委員會主席凱文•馬丁近日提出設(shè)立一項(xiàng)“通用服務(wù)基金”，以提高寬帶普及率，但未獲通過。此前電話業(yè)務(wù)領(lǐng)域曾有類似先例。

研究報(bào)告稱，目前“除英國外，只有少數(shù)用戶使用手機(jī)上網(wǎng)”。該項(xiàng)由美國發(fā)布的年度報(bào)告今年首次在全球范圍內(nèi)公布。

根據(jù)“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)世界統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)”，截至今年6月30日，全世界網(wǎng)民達(dá)14.63億。據(jù)估計(jì)，在上世紀(jì)90年代，全世界的網(wǎng)民數(shù)量每年增長一倍。

目前美國的網(wǎng)民數(shù)量為2.201億，占全球網(wǎng)民總數(shù)的15%，而美國的人口總數(shù)為3.05億，占全世界人口總數(shù)的3%。