Study compares Internet use by children in Brazil and Europe

Report presents indicators on internet use by children and adolescents


The conditions of access and internet use by children and adolescents in Brazil and seven European countries are presented in the report “Children and Internet use: A comparative analysis of Brazil and seven European countries”. The trend towards increasingly private Internet use by young people aged 9 to 16 in Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and the United Kingdom is one of the main results presented.

The report, produced from comparable surveys among participating countries conducted between 2013 and 2014, highlights a significant presence of Brazilians on social networks compared to the other countries.

The Brazilian data comes from the TIC Kids Online Brazil 2013 survey, conducted under the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), under the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br). For the Brazilian survey, 2,261 internet-using children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 were interviewed, as well as their parents or guardians. The European data was produced by the Net Children Go Mobile project.

Brazilians have less access to the network in the school environment, but are ahead of other countries in terms of access to mobile devices and the presence of children aged 9 to 10 on social networks. The study shows that one in three Brazilian child internet users access the network through mobile devices (33%), a level higher than countries like Romania (15%), Ireland (13%), Portugal (13%), and Belgium (11%). Internet access in their own room or another private area of the house is common practice among children and adolescents in almost all analyzed countries: more than half (56%) of Brazilian internet users, 85% in Denmark, 70% in the United Kingdom, 69% in Italy and Romania, and 60% in Ireland and Portugal. The exception is Belgium (48%).

Education and online activities

At school, internet access is limited to only one-third of Brazilian child internet users (36%). This proportion is lower than observed in most European countries involved in the study: United Kingdom (88%), Denmark (80%), Romania (53%), Portugal (49%), Ireland (47%), and Belgium (39%), with the exception of Italy (26%). "Rather than restricting internet access, Brazilian schools should value it and invest in this technology, allowing children to fully explore the potential of the internet and be empowered for its safe use," says Alexandre Barbosa, manager of Cetic.br.

Watching online videos or clips and using social networks are the most cited activities by children and adolescents aged 11 to 16 in all the countries studied. Danes (70%), Romanians (58%), Irish (49%), and British (49%) prefer watching online videos, while social networks appear as the main activity for Italian (59%), Brazilian (52%), Portuguese (50%), and Belgian (48%) adolescents.

Social networks

Regarding presence on social networks, 78% of Brazilian child and adolescent internet users have their own profile, a rate similar to Romania (78%) and Denmark (81%). In Brazil, children aged 9 and 10 are the most present (52%) in these channels among the analyzed countries: Romania (50%), Denmark (41%), Portugal (26%), Belgium (22%), United Kingdom (19%), Italy (15%), and Ireland (14%).

According to the study, a large part of young Brazilians values having a large number of online contacts and shows little concern for maintaining public profiles on these networks. In Brazil, more than half of the children (54%) claim to have more than 100 contacts in their main profile, a phenomenon similar to Romania (64%). Additionally, 42% of Brazilians have a completely public profile, with this proportion being only 15% in Italy.

For more information on the comparative analysis between the TIC Kids Online Brazil 2013 survey and the Net Children Go Mobile, visit: https://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/EU%20Kids%20III/Reports/FullReportBrazilNCGM.pdf

About Cetic.br

The Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society, under NIC.br, is responsible for producing indicators and statistics on the availability and use of the Internet in Brazil, disseminating periodic analyses and information on the development of the network in the country. Cetic.br is a Regional Center for Studies, under the auspices of UNESCO. More information at https://www.cetic.br/.

About the Brazilian Network Information Center – NIC.br

The Brazilian Network Information Center — NIC.br (https://www.nic.br/) is a non-profit civil entity that implements the decisions and projects of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee. Permanent activities of NIC.br include coordinating domain name registration — Registro.br (https://www.registro.br/), studying, responding to, and handling security incidents in Brazil — CERT.br (https://www.cert.br/), researching and studying network technologies and operations — Ceptro.br (https://www.ceptro.br/), producing indicators on information and communication technologies — Cetic.br (https://www.cetic.br/), fostering and promoting the evolution of the Web in Brazil — Ceweb.br (https://www.ceweb.br/) and housing the W3C office in Brazil (https://www.w3c.br/).

About the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee – CGI.br

The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, responsible for establishing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinates and integrates all initiatives of internet services in the country, promoting technical quality, innovation, and dissemination of offered services. Based on the principles of multilateralism, transparency, and democracy, CGI.br represents a multi-sectoral internet governance model with effective participation from all sectors of society in its decisions. One of its formulations is the 10 Principles for Internet Governance and Use (https://www.cgi.br/principios). More information at https://www.cgi.br/.

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