時尚雙語:美國年輕人互聯網使用率不及他國
US youth have lots to catch up on the Internet
Fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries and areas around the world showed.
Among 12 to 14 year olds, 100 percent of British youth use the Internet, followed by Israel at 98 percent, the Czech Republic and Macao at 96 percent and Canada at 95 percent, according to the World Internet report by the Center for the Digital Future.
By contrast, only 88 percent of Americans of the same age had access, trailed by Hungary and Singapore, where more than seven in 10 young people use the Internet.
Separately, a bulletin by a software company showed mobile phone access to the Internet burgeoning outside the United States, especially in Southeast Asia.
For the report by the Center for the Digital Future, headed by Jeff Cole at the University of Southern California, researchers in 13 countries talked to more than 25,000 people in Asia, Australia, North and South America and Europe in late 2007 and early 2008.
The Center report showed the United States trails other countries in older groups, too. US Internet usage by those over 18 runs behind Sweden, New Zealand and Canada.
Recently, US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin unsuccessfully proposed a universal service fund to promote high-speed Internet access, similar to the one for telephone service.
The Center report, issued annually in the United States and for the first time worldwide, said mobile phones are used for Internet access "by a very small percentage of users, with the exception of the United Kingdom."
As of June 30, 2008, 1.463 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats. During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet users grew by 100 percent per year.
The Unites States accounts 220.1 millions users of Internet, which take 15 percent of all users. The population of the Unites States is 305 million, which takes 3 percent of world.
一項針對全球13個國家和地區的網絡使用率調查顯示，與捷克、加拿大、澳門和英國相比，美國年輕人的互聯網使用率較低。
該項由“數字化未來”中心發佈的《世界互聯網研究報告》稱，12歲至14歲青少年的互聯網使用率在英國是100%，其次是以色列，爲98%，捷克和澳門爲96%，加拿大爲95%。
而美國的這一比例僅爲88%，之後是匈牙利和新加坡，這兩個國家有超過70%的年輕人使用互聯網。
另據一家軟件公司發佈的報告，手機上網在美國以外的一些國家和地區悄然興起，尤其在東南亞地區。
“數字化未來”中心爲了編撰該報告，邀請了13個國家的研究人員從去年年底至今年年初對亞洲、澳大利亞、南北美洲和歐洲的25000多人進行了調查。“數字化未來”中心的負責人是美國南加州大學的傑夫•科爾。
調查報告顯示，美國年齡較大人羣的網絡使用率也落後於其他國家。美國18歲以上人羣的網絡使用率落後於瑞典、新西蘭和加拿大。
美國聯邦通信委員會主席凱文•馬丁近日提出設立一項“通用服務基金”，以提高寬帶普及率，但未獲通過。此前電話業務領域曾有類似先例。
研究報告稱，目前“除英國外，只有少數用戶使用手機上網”。該項由美國發布的年度報告今年首次在全球範圍內公佈。
根據“互聯網世界統計數據”，截至今年6月30日，全世界網民達14.63億。據估計，在上世紀90年代，全世界的網民數量每年增長一倍。
目前美國的網民數量爲2.201億，佔全球網民總數的15%，而美國的人口總數爲3.05億，佔全世界人口總數的3%。
