Students have online classes on November 21, 2022, in Haidian district, Beijing. Photo: VCG

The number of underage netizens in China reached 191 million in 2021, with the internet penetration rate among minors reaching 96.8 percent. Nearly 90 percent of juvenile netizens often attended online classes in the past six months, according to a newly released report on national underage internet use.

The report, the 2021 National Underage Internet Use Research Report, was jointly released by the Department of Youth Rights and Welfare of the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The respondents were students under the age of 18 in primary, junior high, senior high, vocational and technical colleges, excluding those under the age of six and non-students.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 197 million people nationwide were receiving primary, junior high, senior high and secondary vocational education in 2021.

In urban areas, 96.7 percent of minors had internet access in 2021, as did 97.3 percent in rural areas. The internet penetration rate among primary school students reached 95 percent, 2.9 percent higher than in 2020, with the trend pointing to younger people being active online, read the report.

Among underage netizens, 86.7 percent had their own internet access devices, 3.8 percent higher than in 2020. The report showed that 66.0 percent of underage internet users spent less than half an hour online on work days.

The report said nearly 90 percent of Chinese underage internet users often had online classes in the past half year.

Globally, 2.2 billion people - or two-thirds of those aged 25 years or younger - do not have internet access at home,  according to a new joint report from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and the International Telecommunication Union in  December 2020.

At the height of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 1.6 billion children were affected by school closures, causing the largest mass disruption of education in modern history, according to the report released by the ITU.

The internet has become an important learning, social and entertainment tool for minors, and has had a profound impact on their growth. Since 2018, relevant departments have conducted annual surveys on the use of the internet by minors and released reports, striving to comprehensively and objectively reflect the characteristics of internet use and the online life status of minors in China.

The report focuses on the popularization of the internet among minors, the characteristics of internet use, internet security and the protection of minors' rights and interests. It focuses on the research and judgment of the changes in the trend of minors' internet use and existing problems, and puts forward targeted suggestions for future work.

Global Times