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.

一项针对全球13个国家和地区的网络使用率调查显示，与捷克、加拿大、澳门和英国相比，美国年轻人的互联网使用率较低。

该项由“数字化未来”中心发布的《世界互联网研究报告》称，12岁至14岁青少年的互联网使用率在英国是100%，其次是以色列，为98%，捷克和澳门为96%，加拿大为95%。

而美国的这一比例仅为88%，之后是匈牙利和新加坡，这两个国家有超过70%的年轻人使用互联网。

另据一家软件公司发布的报告，手机上网在美国以外的一些国家和地区悄然兴起，尤其在东南亚地区。

“数字化未来”中心为了编撰该报告，邀请了13个国家的研究人员从去年年底至今年年初对亚洲、澳大利亚、南北美洲和欧洲的25000多人进行了调查。“数字化未来”中心的负责人是美国南加州大学的杰夫•科尔。

调查报告显示，美国年龄较大人群的网络使用率也落后于其他国家。美国18岁以上人群的网络使用率落后于瑞典、新西兰和加拿大。

美国联邦通信委员会主席凯文•马丁近日提出设立一项“通用服务基金”，以提高宽带普及率，但未获通过。此前电话业务领域曾有类似先例。

研究报告称，目前“除英国外，只有少数用户使用手机上网”。该项由美国发布的年度报告今年首次在全球范围内公布。

根据“互联网世界统计数据”，截至今年6月30日，全世界网民达14.63亿。据估计，在上世纪90年代，全世界的网民数量每年增长一倍。

目前美国的网民数量为2.201亿，占全球网民总数的15%，而美国的人口总数为3.05亿，占全世界人口总数的3%。