Fact-finding survey regarding mobile phone/smartphone use by minors
Active communication with "internet friends" still common
Minors trust their own net literacy yet risk awareness low
More elementary students have second accounts, lowering of age continues
Guardians respect minors' independence, taking concrete measures an issue

Information security solution provider Digital Arts Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Toshio Dogu; hereinafter referred to as "Digital Arts"; Code 2326) conducted its 13th fact-finding survey of 618 upper-elementary, junior high and high school students (aged 10 to 18 in both sexes) and 1,030 guardians of children aged 3 to 18 for total of 1,648 respondents who own mobile phone/smartphones across Japan, regarding the use and application of mobile phone/smartphones by minors.

Since the latter half of last year there were repeated cases of elementary and junior high school students being kidnapped by strangers they had met through social media. There was collective shock that minors got involved in crimes after becoming so close to these strangers via the internet, to the point that they would consider visiting the stranger's home, and there was increased attention to the fact that minors were being left so defenseless to the dangers of social media. As part of a plan to address this situation, national organizations including Japan's National Police Agency and local governments have taken some measures, and businesses have implemented activities to improve information literacy. These activities made the crime caused by minors' online communication well-known, and appears to have become a deterrent.

This fact-finding survey examined the percentage of minors who have smartphones, how they use them, the percentage who use filtering, also the state of minors' communication via the internet and how much guardians are aware of minors' mobile phone/smartphone use. In it, the following trends were seen.

Even with rise in awareness of internet communication, awareness of risks remains low

• 40.1% of minors have friends that they only communicate with via the internet (internet friends)
  The percentage of minors who have internet friends was 40.1%, a 2.6% increase from last year.
• 40.3% of minors have met or want to meet their internet friends. Of those, 60.7% trust these friends based on their internet conversations.
  The percentage of minors who have either met or have a desire to meet their internet friends was 40.3%, which was a 9.7% decrease from last year. Of those, 60.7% said the reason for this was that they felt that they could trust these friends based on their internet conversations.
• Awareness of the dangers of kidnapping and selfie harm1 remains low
  To a question of whether they sensed that their child could be the target of an internet-based incident, 38.3% of guardians responded "Not especially," which was 9.6% lower than last year. To the same question about themselves, 42.1% of minors responded "Not especially," which was almost the same as last year. While there was a slight increase in the concerned parties' awareness of being the target of kidnapping or selfie harm incidents, for kidnapping 89.2% answered "Not especially", a 10% increase over last year, while for selfie harm "Not especially" was 92.9%, a 4.2% increase over last year. Based on these results it can be seen that overall awareness remains low.
• The number of elementary school students with a secret account increased, while an overall age lowering was seen
  66.0% of high school-aged girls had a secret account, which was a 3.9% decrease from last year, while 35.0% of junior high school-aged girls had one, which was 6.7% fewer than last year.
  At the same time, the number of elementary school students with secret accounts was 32.0%, a 5.5% increase over last year.

State of social media use/dt>

• State of social media use
  89.8% of minors used social media, and the most common use was for "Hobbies, Favorite artists, and Favorite things" at 59.8%.

Degree of use and filtering use on minors' mobile phone/smartphone

• Minors' degree of smartphone possession and average time used was similar to last year
  Of minors who had some sort of mobile phone/smartphone, the percentage who had a smartphone was 93.7%, which was essentially the same as last year. The average time of use went down by 0.1 hours to 3.6 hours.
• Filtering use by minors was 35.0%
  45.3% of minors answered that they had been told about the filtering settings when purchasing their mobile phone, which was 7.6% lower than last year.
  Although there is more awareness of and uneasiness about the dangers, the present use of filtering was 35%, a 5.0% decrease from last year.

Guardians' awareness of minors' mobile phone/smartphone use

• Many guardians have a mobile phone/smartphone for their children to be able to get in contact
  69.5% of upper-elementary to high school students' guardians' purpose for having their children have a mobile phone/smartphone was "To be able to get in contact." This percentage was 59.7% for guardians of lower-grade elementary school students.
• Many guardians realize the dangers of being in contact with strangers and mobile phone overuse
  Among guardians of upper-elementary to high school-aged students, the main cause of worries over student's internet use was "The danger of being in contact with strangers and getting involved in some incident" with 62.0% of answers. Next was "Damage to health via smartphone overuse" at 54.9%. "Decline in academic performance due to smartphone overuse" was next with 45.1%.
• Although guardians are worried about mobile phone/smartphone overuse, only 30% of guardians were taking some kind of measure against it
  Guardians realize the need to limit their children's mobile phone/smartphone usage time, however only 24.1% responded that they "Limit usage time or applications to be used through filtering, etc.," while 28.5% said that they "Set rules for usage time but there are no penalties for breaking the rules," and 23.0% said they "Leave it up to the children to decide." This illustrates that many do not set clear, concrete standards, and that many guardians allow their children to use mobile phones essentially freely. Also, 40.7% responded that they "Talk to the child about social media, etc. more than once per month".
• 44.7% of guardians have a designated device for their pre-school-aged child to use
  The percentage of guardians who have a designated device of some kind for their pre-school aged child to use was 44.7%. Also, 89.8% of guardians have experienced using a device to babysit a child, and 57.3% had an experience where their child used the device for a purpose the guardian had not expected.

1. 1 Concern over increasingly severe cases in which minors are tricked or coerced into taking nude photos of themselves and sending these by e-mail or the like, then having these photos used against them for blackmail or other purposes.
2. 2 Smartphones (including ones with expired service plans) 22.9%, tablets 13.6%, flip phones 6.8%, video game devices capable of web browsing 1.5%
3. 3 Digital Arts' family-oriented filtering product "i-FILTER" has a feature in which websites guardians do not wish to show to children can be blocked, in addition to a feature that allows children to petition guardians about the websites they wish to view. If the guardian grants permission, the website can be un-blocked.
4. 4 Digital Arts' family-oriented filtering product "i-FILTER" has a feature in which internet use time can be limited and controlled based on the day of the week and time of day.