Promoting the gradual introduction of Internet use to children requires effort on the part of service providers to make it easy to determine which sites are user friendly for and proper for children, as well as providing information to parents and guardians

TOKYO—February 9, 2011—NetSTAR, Inc., Japan’s premier developer of URL filtering product technologies and services, today announced the release of the twelfth annual Survey of Household Internet Use.

The purpose of the survey is to measure Internet usage trends and user awareness in the home, and NetSTAR has been conducting this survey annually since 2004. This year’s survey was conducted as an Internet-based questionnaire for parents and guardians in households that use filtering and have junior high school or high school-age children. The following is a summary of the survey result highlights.

(1) Filtering is used mostly on computers, and more than half of those are using a free service
The device on which filtering was used was on a computer in 80% of the households surveyed. Filtering on smartphones and game machines reached only about 20%. Of the products and services used, 60% were free services that are part of either anti-virus products or the OS that came with a computer, and 20% were provider-based or router-based commercial products for computers. From this we learned that free services made up the majority of products used.

(2) For promoting the gradual introduction of Internet use, efforts must be made to determine a child’s Internet skills and sites that are appropriate for children
More than 60% of parents and guardians would like to introduce their children to the Internet gradually while under their supervision. However, only 40% of those using mobile phones, and only 20% of those using anti-virus products or functions bundled with their computer OS answered that they would like to regularly review filtering rules as their children grow. Regardless of the product being used, the most difficult aspects of using filtering were “knowing if the children have the necessary skills for using the Internet” and “supervising their use after expanding the number of sites available for viewing.” The tools sought by parents and guardians for measuring the Internet skills of their children were “a list of skills required to use the Internet,” and “a target age for each site,” which indicates that service providers have not made enough effort to identify the Internet skills of children or sites that are appropriate for children and that insufficient information is being provided to parents and guardians.

(3) Filtering is used for the security of the parents and guardians, and relatives in other locations, as well as for children
The role of filtering, according to the survey results, was to “oversee the Internet use of children” and “be able to use the Internet safely,” for 60% of respondents, which indicates that the majority of parents and guardians consider filtering a vital technology for safe Internet use. In fact, more than 70% of parents and guardians use filtering for their own benefit as well. About 20% of respondents were concerned about the Internet use of relatives living in other locations, such as grandparents. Of these, 20% had already implemented filtering for these relatives, and when combined with those who have yet to implement filtering, a full 70% of respondents would like their relatives to use filtering.

This year’s survey revealed that, though parents and guardians would like to gradually introduce their children to the Internet, they lack a measure by which to determine the Internet skills of their children or sites that are appropriate for children. It also revealed that they lack an understanding of the intricacies of filtering and that service providers must make a greater effort and provide information to parents and guardians.

NetSTAR will continue contributing to society by creating an environment in which all people can use the Internet safely and securely; we will work to understand the trends and needs of users; and we will reflect these in the technology and products that we develop.

About NetSTAR URL Lists

NetSTAR specializes in the development of URL filtering software and services, and in the collection, categorization, and delivery of URL lists. Recognized for their high performance and low false positive rate, our high-quality URL lists are used by all Japanese mobile telephone and PHS telephone providers (*1) and by large companies with strict quality requirements, including approximately 60% of prefectural governments, 40% of central government agencies, and 40% of the companies in the Nikkei Excellent Company Ranking, which is proof of their excellence. (*2)

Note: 1. New lists are distributed daily for use in the filtering systems of NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank Mobile, WILLCOM, and EMOBILE; 2. Based on NetSTAR’s research.