The Internet permeates every aspect of the economy and society, and is becoming an essential element of young people’s lives. Accordingly, policy makers need evidence of the impact of ICTs on school students’ performance and well-being. Current research presents a rather mixed picture and underlines the need for additional metrics, while new indicators on students’ attitudes shed light on some aspects of problematic use of the Internet.
According to the results of the 2015 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 17% of students in the OECD area first accessed the Internet at the age of 6 or under. For countries where data are available, less than 0.3% of 15-year-olds reported never having accessed the Internet.
The age of first access to the Internet varies across countries. Over 30% of students started using the Internet at the age of 6 or under in Denmark, Estonia, Iceland and Israel. The most common age of first access is between 7 and 9 years in about two-thirds of the countries surveyed by PISA, and 10 years and over in the remaining third.
In 2015, 43% of 15 year-olds in the OECD area spent between two and six hours a day online outside of school – a sizeable increase from less than 30% in 2012. Brazil and Chile had the largest proportion of students (over 30%) spending more than six hours a day on the Internet outside school.
Such massive Internet uptake among younger generations has led to increasing interest in the impact of online activities on children’s well-being from various societal actors, including researchers, policy makers, and educational professionals, as well as parents. New evidence from PISA 2015 provides information on students’ attitudes and feelings when engaged in online activities. The data show that most students enjoy using various digital devices and the Internet, but that many are at risk of problematic Internet use, as indicated by issues such as losing track of time when online and feeling bad if Internet connectivity is unavailable.
Across OECD countries, 90% of students enjoy using digital devices and 61% reported that they forget time when using them. About 55% of students in OECD countries indicate feeling bad when no Internet connection is available. In countries such as France, Greece, Portugal and Sweden, this ratio reaches about 80% compared to approximately 40% in Estonia and Slovenia. In terms of gender and income differences, girls and disadvantaged students appear to feel bad slightly more often than boys and less disadvantaged students respectively, when no Internet connection is available.
