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AVG Digital Diaries
AVG Digital Diaries
Since November 2010, AVG has been running a regular series of ten-country studies called AVG Digital Diaries. Starting with infants aged 0-2, each stage has looked at how the Internet has affected the development of different age groups. A summary of the key results for each phase are as follows:
Uploading ante-natal scans, giving children an online album from birth, and in some cases even creating email addresses for babies - todays parents are increasingly building a digital footprint for their children from the moment they are born. 81% of children under two currently have some kind of digital dossier or footprint, with images of them posted online. In the US that rises to 92% while for the EU5 the figure is 73%. Though the average digital birth of children happens at around six months, a third (33%) of children have information and photos online within weeks of being born. In the UK, 37% of newborns have an online life from birth, whereas in Australia and New Zealand the figure is 41%.
A quarter (23%) of children have had their pre-birth scans uploaded to the Internet. This figure is higher in the US, where 34% have had antenatal scans posted online, while in Canada the figure is even higher at 37%. Fewer parents share scans of their children in France (13%), Italy (14%) and Germany (15%). Likewise only 14% of parents share baby scans online in Japan. Seven percent of babies and toddlers have an email address created for them by their parents and five percent have a social network profile.
Most 6-9 year olds and almost half 6-7 year olds spend more than two hours a week online. The average time spent online varies from 4.2 hours in the UK to 2.4 hours in Germany Over one in five (22%) young children now uses email, in Australia the figure is as high as 28%. Over one in eight 6-9 years uses Facebook (NB, does not mean they have a profile) in the US it is 16%. Japan is the only country where half of 6-9 year olds dont use some form of online communications tool. Almost half (47%) of 8-9 year olds now talk to their friends online. On balance, parents of children that do talk to friends via the Internet feel that this has a positive impact on their social skills.
In the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and France a majority of parents with eleven year olds say their kids are accessing mainstream social networks. In Germany a majority access them at 12, while in Italy and Spain, digital maturity starts as young as 10. Only Japan bucks the trend with few kids being present on these sites. When asked who knows the most about the Internet in your household, more than seven out of 10 mothers and fathers (72%) said they were the most knowledgeable. By comparison, less than one in 10 (8%) said their 10-13 year old knew the most.
Fathers were by far the most likely to think of themselves as online experts, despite evidence that shows most major social networks are female dominated. Overall, nine in 10 (87%) Fathers surveyed thought they knew best, while barely one in 20 (5%) felt their kids were better informed.
More than half of adults (53 per cent) believe privacy in the workplace has been eroded with the proliferation of social media. The final and seventh stage of AVG Digital Diaries found that the mis-use of social media has infiltrated the workplace with often negative effects on employees privacy, forcing many to switch off or limit their use of social networking sites. One in ten respondents discovered secret discussions about them online were initiated by colleagues using social media, and 11 per cent have had embarrassing photos or videos taken at a work event and uploaded onto social media sites. This is as high as 19 per cent in Spain and 14 per cent in the UK. A small number of all adults (6 per cent) even found themselves subjected to unwanted romantic advances through online media, and in the US this number rose to ten per cent of all adults. Of those that agreed social media has eroded their privacy at work, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) now avoid posting on social networks that have caused them privacy concerns, while 23 per cent limit their posts. More than half (53 per cent) are more careful about what they post.
AVG Digital Diaries looks at respondents in the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand. For further information, see avgdigitaldiaries.com