Reasons Why Parents in Japan Encourage Their child’s Use of PC

Source: Cross Marketing (Conducted 500 mothers of children of between ages 4~12), February 2012

In a survey of mothers of children in age groups between kindergarten through primary school, the survey found that 13.6% of children used their computers every day, whereas 32.6% were said to use them occasionally, 29.2% on rare occasions and 24.6% seldom or never. Of the respondents, 75.4% of children owned or had access to a PC.

As for computer usage, children watched TV or DVDs on their computer for 35.56 minutes per day. This was followed by viewing blogs, entering data or chat, for 34.62 minutes; playing online games, 31.69 minutes; designing and writing blogs, 28.85 minutes; and viewing Web sites, 23.97 minutes.

Nearly all of the PCs used by the children were shared by other family members. The main reasons stated by parents for encouraging their children to use a PC was “To make become familiarized from an early age for their future,” stated by 54.7%. This was followed by “PCs are helpful when keeping an eye on the child,” (16.3%) and “To improve academic performance,” (3.5%). The most common benefit to the child's using a PC, as stated by parents, was “Enhances their sense of curiosity,” stated by 36.3%.