I'm trying to find some recent statistics (2003 or 2004) on young
children's use of the Internet (say, under age 12 or 13) in the U.S. I've spent
hours Googling for this statistic, but all the studies I've found seem
to be outdated or related to teens. Can you help me find any
statistics like (a) the % of American children who are online these
days, (b) how much time the average kid spends online, or (c)
projections for either of these figures? (Bonus points for statistics
or studies concerning how often these kids run into the seedier side
of the Internet, like Web sites or even online predators!) Thanks!

<Young children's internet use.

2003 study by AOL & Digital Marketing Services.

35% of US kids aged 2 to 5 now have access to the Internet--compared
with 6% in the year 2000. For kids 6 to 8, the figure rises to 60%
from 27%. Playing games is the favorite activity (87%), followed by
listening to music (63%).
http://www1.medialiteracy.com/stats_technology.jsp

According to a recent America Online/Digital Marketing Services, Inc.
online survey conducted in Opinion Place among more than 2,000 kids
aged 7 - 12 years and parents of kids aged 7 - 12 years, nearly half
of kids (46%) go online at least four times a week and nearly 20% go
online every day. According to Jupiter Research, it is expected that
57% of kids aged 11 and under will be online by 2007.
http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/newmedia/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=55253423

2004 survey by SBC Communications.
More than 30 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds spend three or more hours
online during an average week. Nearly 60 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds
are completing Internet projects at school, and more than 30 percent
have Internet-related work to complete at home. More than 30 percent
of 6- to 11-year-olds are using online dictionaries, thesauruses and
encyclopedias.
http://www.mitechnews.com/technews/bydate.htm?id=10928016000002

Adult material.
A survey by SmartGirl of children with an average age of 13 ½  from
the UK, Canada, India, New Zealand, Australia and the United States
found that 49.5% are online for 1-3 hours per day. Over 60% had
experienced adult material online.
http://www.smartgirl.org/reports/1934650.html

According to the Youth Internet Survey almost one quarter of children
aged 10 to 13 years had received online sexual solicitaions.
http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/Youth_Internet_info_page.html

The Exposure of Youth to Unwanted Sexual Material on the Internet: A
National Survey of Risk, Impact, & Prevention, By Kimberly Mitchell,
David Finkelhor and Janis Wolak. (2003). Youth & Society, 34(3):
330-358.
This study gives details of the types of exposure that children have
to sexual pictures. 83% is pictures of naked person(s), 32 % is people
having sex and 7 % is violent sexual pictures. 7% of exposures were to
11 and 12 year olds.
http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/Exposure_risk.pdf>


<Search strategy:>

<"online predators" kids respondents>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22online+predators%22+kids+respondents>

<"young children" "respondents" internet hours>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22young+children%22+%22respondents%22+internet+hours>

<"kids are online" "respondents" >
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22kids+are+online%22+%22respondents%22+>


<Hope this helps.>

BEYOND fantastic. And overnight, too! Absolutely spectacular work. Thank you.