NetSTAR

TOKYO March 31, 2010

　TOKYO—March 31, 2010—NetSTAR, Inc., Japan’s premier developer of URL filtering product technologies and services, today announced the results of NetSTAR’s eleventh Survey of Internet Use in the Home.

In order to gain an understanding of home Internet usage trends and user awareness, NetSTAR has been surveying both parents and the children themselves continuously since 2004. Our latest survey was conducted as an online survey for both parents and children. This report will focus on the following three points:

1) Children’s first Internet-capable devices are more commonly gaming devices than mobile phones, and as many as 55.9% have played interactive games.
Over 60% of parents had bought their children a Nintendo DS, which has an interactive gaming function, and these devices were second only to computers as the most commonly used Internet-capable devices, at 20.4% and 34.6% respectively. Among all the children, 55.9% had used the interactive gaming function, and 20.7% of junior high school students had played games with a stranger via this function. Furthermore, over 30% of early elementary school students had used the interactive gaming function without the help of an adult, and this figure increased to over 40% among junior high school students. Meanwhile, very few parents were aware of or used the parental control function that typically comes with these devices, with the majority allowing their children to use the devices with no restrictions at all.

2) No concrete measures taken by parents to block sites that they “do not want their children to see” and “would feel uncomfortable viewing themselves”
On the topic of illegal and harmful sites, many parents not only said that they “would not like their children to see them” but that they “would feel uncomfortable viewing them themselves” and “would not even want to view them by accident.” However, with the exception of households that use anti-virus software (52.7%), only a few households (11.5%) used active measures such as filtering to block these sites.

3) With a growing number of Internet-capable devices in households, there are high hopes for all-in-one management products and services at the router or provider level.
Families are discouraged from setting up filtering on each Internet-capable device in a household because it is time-consuming and costly, so types that can manage multiple devices at the router or provider level have become popular.

This survey has made it clear that the range of Internet-capable devices used by children is widening, and parents have not kept up with this. It is essential to manage Internet access on all devices so that the whole family can use the Internet safely and with peace of mind on each and every one of the increasing number of Internet-capable devices. NetSTAR will continue to monitor the trends and awareness level of Internet users and reflect this in the development of technology and products, in order to contribute to society by creating an environment in which everybody can use the Internet safely via all kinds of devices.

■Background of the Survey
It is now possible to use the Internet not only on computers and mobile phones but on a variety of household devices including gaming devices and televisions, and the Internet is also being used more widely. At the same time, this has led to the problem of children having access to Internet terminals that they can use freely out of sight of their parents. This survey targeted parents with third grade to high school aged children and the children themselves, and its purpose is to gain an understanding of the changes in and awareness of Internet-capable devices in households, and to provide ways to resolve these issues.

■Investigation Methods
This survey was conducted online from March 8 to 15, 2010 by online research company Macromill, and Namco Bandai Games Inc. The survey targeted parents with third or fourth grade to high school-aged children, and children in elementary and junior high school. The survey for parents was divided into categories based on what grade the children are currently attending (third or fourth grade, fifth or sixth grade, junior high school and high school) and gender, each category accounting for 12.5% of respondents. Among the parents, 0.4% were in their 20s, 35.3% were in their 30s, 57.8% were in their 40s, 6.4% were in their 50s, and 0.1% were in their 60s. There were 832 valid responses.
Among the children, 12.9% were in first to third grade, 64.2% were in fourth to sixth grade and 22.9% were in junior high school. There were 2174 valid responses.

■Results and comments on the main points (Graphs in Japanese Only) 
▼Children’s “personal Internet devices” were more often gaming devices than mobile phones
-　Over 90% of respondents (parents) have one or more computers, mobile phones, and Nintendo DS game machines in their household. Other Internet-capable devices include Wiis and televisions. (See Graph 1)
-　Of these devices, the most common personal Internet-capable device for the child only was “Nintendo DS” at 71.9%, greatly exceeding “Wii” at 35.0%, “mobile phone” at 29.3% or “computer” at 25.3%. (See Graph 2)
-　“Nintendo DS” also rated the highest by a large margin as the most common first personal Internet-capable device that parents bought their children, at 62.9%, compared to 4.1% for “mobile phone” and 0.7% for “computer.” Putting the same question to the children themselves produced similar results, with “Nintendo DS” the highest by a large margin at 63.9% with “mobile phone” and “computer” a mere 11.0% and 6.6% respectively. (See Graphs 3 and Graphs 4)

▼Computers and gaming devices main Internet-capable devices for children
- Computers and mobile phones were the most common devices via which family members used the Internet, at 99.8% and 73.4% respectively, but usage via gaming devices has also increased. On the parents’ survey, 20 to 30% of respondents used the Internet via portable devices, and around 40% used it via non-portable devices. The number of respondents who use the Internet via their televisions has also now reached 35.8%. (See Graph 5)
- In terms of which personal devices children had used to access the Internet, “computer” (34.6%) and “Nintendo DS” (20.4%) rated higher than “mobile phone,” (16.4%).. (See Graph 6)
- Many parents were aware that game devices like these had functions for accessing the Internet. (See Graph 7)

▼Over half of children play interactive games on gaming devices and nearly 20% have “played games with a stranger”
- Of the child respondents, as many as 55.9% played interactive games on gaming devices. When asked who they played with, 39.9% said “A friend”, followed by “A sibling” at 19.3%, but “A stranger” was not uncommon, at 16.5%. Only 8.2% of elementary school students had played games with a stranger, but as many as 20.7% of junior high school students said that they had. (See Graphs 8, Graphs 9 and Graphs 10)
- However, when parents were asked on which devices they thought their children played interactive games, only 26.4% said “Computer”, 25.4% said “Nintendo DS” and 12.5% said “Wii”, with the greatest number of respondents (39.7%) saying “They haven’t played games” or “They do not use the interactive game function”. (See Graph 11)
- Furthermore, when asked who set up the interactive gaming function on their gaming devices, while 48.8% of children said that their parents had, there were many children who said that they had set it up themselves (24.9%) or that their friends or siblings had set it up (13.1%). Among junion high students, 33.0% had set it up themselves. (See Graphs 12 and Graphs13.)
- As a result of these circumstances, many parents (70.9%) are concerned about the fact that children are able to access the Internet without their knowledge via devices such as gaming devices. (See Graph 14)
- When asked about parental control functions provided for gaming devices and Internet-capable televisions to restrict Internet access and usage of adult-oriented software, less than 30% of parents were aware of these functions for any of these devices. (See Graph 15)

▼There are many sites that parents do not want their children to see and would feel uncomfortable viewing themselves, but no active measures are taken in most households.
- Most parents do not want their children to see illegal or harmful sites such as adult sites, suicide sites, and drug sites, but parents’ opinions varied on sites such as social networking sites and sites containing swimsuit or other sexy images, opinions on religion or politics, or gambling information, depending on their age group and gender. Women (mothers) tended in general to be more cautious than men (fathers). (See Graphs 16, Graphs 17, Graphs 18, Graphs 19 and Graphs 20.)
- Of the sites that parents themselves wanted to avoid, the most common answers were “sites with grotesque images”, “sites that give readers viruses”, “online fraud”, “suicide sites”, “sites introducing readers to illegal activities” and “drug sites”. Younger generations and women (mothers) tended to show the most concern about many types. (See Graphs 21, Graphs 22 and Graphs 23.)
- When asked what measures parents themselves took to avoid such sites, many respondents said “Use anti-virus software or service” (52.7%) and/or “Take care not to log onto suspicious-looking sites” (46.3%). However, 25.6% said “None in particular,” and while they were concerned about encountering sites with grotesque images and sites for suicide, illegal activities and drugs, which cannot be prevented by virus protection software or services, this did not lead them to use products or services that would be effective for sites like this, such as filtering products or services. (See Graph 24)

▼When installing filtering systems, all-in-one systems at the router or provider level are favored, and there is great interest in filtering that not only protects children but also protects adults from sites that make them uncomfortable.
-The most common security measures being used were “anti-virus” at 84.1% followed by “anti-spam” at 38.0%, while only 6.6% used filtering. Meanwhile, when asked which measures respondents wished to install next, the most common was “anti-virus” at 48.1%, followed by “anti-spam” at 34.4% and “filtering” at “31.9%”. (See Graph 25)
- When asked about adult filtering products and services to block sites that make adults uncomfortable, 71.8% said that they would like to use such products or services. (See Graph 26)
- In the case of filtering for not only computers but a variety of household devices such as gaming devices, respondents preferred an all-in-one system at the router or provider level to products or services that need to be installed individually on each device. The most common reasons given were “Installing it individually is time-consuming” (65.7%), “It is too expensive” (62.4%) and “It is hard to set the rules”. (See Graphs 27 and Graphs 28)

About NetSTAR, Inc, and URL Lists
NetSTAR specializes in the development of URL filtering software and services, and in the collection, categorization, and delivery of URL lists. NetSTAR URL lists are used by all mobile phone and PHS phone operators in Japan (*1), and for enterprises there are a number of market-leading products like InterSafe WebFilter by Alps System Integration Co., Ltd., and InterScan and WebManager by Trend Micro Incorporated. Recognized for its high performance and low false positive rate, NetSTAR products are number one (*2) among large companies with strict quality requirements, including approximately 60% of prefectural governments, 40% of central governments, and 40% of the companies in the Nikkei Excellent Company Ranking. NetSTAR also has a greater than 40% share of the market nationwide. (*3)
NetSTAR's URL lists are now being used in security appliance products and routers for small- and medium-size businesses, and many individual customers are using them through our home-use filtering services. NetSTAR’s URL lists are recognized for their general applicability, quality in collection and categorization processes, and reliability of distribution, and they are the de facto standard in the industry.
http://www.netstar-inc.com/index.html
*1.NetSTAR distributes new lists daily for use in the filtering systems of NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank Mobile, Wilcom, and eMobile　*2. Based on NetSTAR's research　*3.. According to Fuji Chimera Research Institute.

* NetSTAR is a registered trademark of NetSTAR, Inc. Other product and company names are the registered trademarks of their respective companies.