96 percent of Japanese high school students use mobile phones

An overwhelming majority of high school students are using mobile phones, according to a government survey.

The Cabinet Office surveyed 5,000 people aged between 10 and 29 and 2,000 parents of schoolchildren over their use of mobile phones and the Internet. Of them, 49.4 percent of those aged between 10 and 29 and 57.3 percent of the parents of schoolchildren responded.

Fully 96 percent of high school students are using mobile phones while some 60 percent of junior high school children and about 30 percent of elementary school children are using such phones, according to the survey results.

A total of 95.5 percent of high school students access Websites from their mobile phones while 56.3 percent of junior high school children and 27 percent of elementary school children do so, according to the results.

Some 74 percent of high school students use computers to access Websites while 68.7 percent of junior high school students and 58.3 percent of elementary school students do so.

When asked about their reasons for accessing the Internet, most of the schoolchildren said they are doing their homework, viewing Websites and blogs, and sending and receiving e-mails.

About 40 percent of the parents of schoolchildren expressed concern that their children may access harmful Website, such as violent, sexual and anti-social ones. Only 40.7 percent of high school students, 43.4 percent of junior high school students and 30 percent of elementary school students replied that they try not to access such sites.

Less than 3 percent of schoolchildren use filtering services to block access to such harmful sites, according to the survey results. (Mainichi)

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