Internet Population

Harris Interactive reports that 74% of U.S. adults (163 million) go online from a survey of 2,022 U.S. adults conducted between February and April 2005.

                http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=569

                See also: Internet addiction and teen depression

                http://my.webmd.com/content/article/106/108167.htm

                See also: Blog population statistics

                http://www.pewinternet.org/press_release.asp?r=104

                See also: Teen blog dangers

                http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0525/p11s02-lifp.html

Online Gambling

According to Christiansen Capital Advisors, as reported by USA Today, 2,000+ gambling websites took in almost $10 billion in 2004.

                http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050208/1b_gamble08.art.htm

                See also: CPYU article on teen gambling

                /pageview.asp?pageid=7733

                See also: CPYU “3-D Guide” review of the World Poker Tour

                /pageview.asp?pageid=28403

Parents Monitor Online Activity

The Conference Board says that 95%+ of parents monitor Internet activity from a survey of 10,000 households.

                http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerBarometer.cfm  or

http://www.conference-board.org/economics/press.cfm?press_ID=2548

See also: Number of times kids check their e-mail during an Internet session: 2.3 times for 8-9 year-old, 2.7 times for 10-12 year-olds, 4.1 times for 13-15 year-olds, and 3.6 times for 16-18 year-olds.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/k12news/HI_Trends&TudesNews2005_v4_iss01.pdf  (see bottom of page 3)

See also: Online spending surge

                http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=878  or

                http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/PR_050103.pdf  or

                http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=546

Top Internet Search Terms

The top 10 search terms for 2004, as reported by Lycos, Inc., were: Janet Jackson, Paris Hilton, Clay Aiken, Britney Spears, Nick Berg, KaZaA, Tattoos, Pamela Anderson, Michelle Vieth, and Poker. See the complete list of 100.

http://50.lycos.com/

                See also: “Kids ages 2-11 lead growth in web page consumption”

                http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_041118.pdf

                See also: U.S. Department of Commerce’s report, “A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age”

                http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/

Online Fantasy Sports

comScore Media Metrix reports that an average of 4.7 million Americans visit fantasy sport related web-sites monthly, spending an average of 93 minutes and visiting an average of 219 sites.        http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=486

                See also: September 2004 issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids has fantasy football guide (pp. 90-92)

                See also: Adolescent lottery attitudes influence gambling

                http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.12.003  (free abstract)

Broadband Majority

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that 51% of U.S. homes have broadband Internet access in July 2004, which is up from 38% in July 2003. 

                http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_040818.pdf  (3 page pdf file)

See also: Online sex abuse

                http://www.apa.org/releases/online_sexabuse.html

                See also: Chat room activity and risky behaviors

                http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.09.012

                See also: High speed Internet and school work

                http://www.sbc.com/gen/press-room?pid=5835

Broadband Internet Rise

The Federal Communications Commission reports that there were 28.2 million home and business high-speed Internet connections in 2003, which is a 42% increase.

                http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/FCC-State_Link/IAD/hspd0604.pdf  (25 page pdf)

                See also: McDonald's and free song downloads

                http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=5339353§ion=news

See also: Rolling Stone (June 24, 2004, p. 43) reports on software company Xingtone, which sells software that allows users to freely transfer songs into ring tones for cell phones. The ring tone market was $3 billion in 2003.

                See also: Web porn surfing beats out search engines

                http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=5340076§ion=news  

T(w)een Download Ethics

The Business Software Alliance reports the results of an online survey conducted in April 2004 on 1,183 8-18 year-old youth about their attitudes and behaviors regarding downloading software and music. Some of the findings:

• 16% of tweens (8-12 years old) and 38% of teens say it is okay to download or upload software
• 50% of tweens and 11% of teens are worried about getting in trouble with parents for downloading copyrighted files
• 51% of tweens and 90% of teens know people who have downloaded files for free
  http://www.bsa.org/usa/press/newsreleases/New-Survey-Shows-that-Teens-Are-More-Likely-to-Illegally-Download.cfm

Teen Music Piracy Attitudes

The Barna Group reports the results of an online survey of 1,448 teenagers conducted in February 2004 in regards to teen attitudes and behaviors about music piracy. Overall, 8% of teens (10% for Christian teens and 6% for "non-born agains") called music piracy morally wrong, 21% said it was morally OK, and 65% said it was not a moral issue.

                http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=162

                See also: CD sales and file-sharing impact study

                http://www.hbs.edu/about/news/032904_file_sharing.html

                See also: 14% of Internet users no longer download music

                http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=122

Internet Spirituality

The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 64% of the estimated 128 million Internet users in the U.S. have done spiritual related activities online from interviews of 2,013 U.S. adults conducted in late 2003.

• 38% have sent and received emails with spiritual content
• 54% of the online faithful describe themselves as religious and spiritual, while 33% describe themselves as spiritual but not religious
  http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=119 
  See also: Religious summer camp participation
  http://www.youthandreligion.org/news/2004-0414.html

Internet Access

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that 74.9% (204,307,000) of Americans have home Internet access. The breakdown by age group: 77.6% of 2-17 year-olds have Internet access; 75.0% for 18-24 year-olds; 76.3% for 25-34 year-olds; 81.0% for 35-54 year-olds; and 63.4% for those 55 and older.

                http://www.netratings.com/pr/pr_040318.pdf  (3 page pdf file)

Alluring Alcohol Web Sites

The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth reports that 13.1% (683,588) of multiple page viewing visits to alcohol Web sites were by underage youth, from analysis of data collected from 55 alcohol Web sites between July and December 2003 by comScore Media Metrix. The two highest percentage sites for underage youth were bacardi.com (58.6%) and skyy.com (47.4%). Budlight.com and budweiser.com were the top sites in total underage visits with 104,590 and 94,217, respectively.

                http://camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=19

                See also: College binge drinking

                http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/Healthology/binge_drinking_healthday_040312.html

                See also: Alcohol related Emergency room visits

                http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/5/531  (free abstract)

Spim Rising

Spam is spawning off into instant messenger (IM) services and being labeled spim. According to Ferris Research, as reported by USA Today, there were 1 billion spim messages in 2003 (up from 250 million in 2002).

                http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040301/5966253s.htm

                See also: 44% of Internet users have contributed online content

                http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=113

See also: Internet plagiarism

                http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0302/p12s01-legn.html

Internet Search Items

The popular Internet search engine Google™ reports on the most popular search items in 2003 from its 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist: 1) Britney Spears, 2) Harry Potter, 3) Matrix, 4) Shakira, 5) David Beckham, 6) 50 Cent, 7) Iraq, 8) Lord of the Rings, 9) Kobe Bryant, 10) Tour De France.

                http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2003.html

                See also: 39% of Americans used a search engine in January 2004

                http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_040223_us.pdf