• Tuesday, 02 July 2024

Electronic Communications Agency survey shows minors spend more than 5 hours a day online

Electronic Communications Agency survey shows minors spend more than 5 hours a day online
Skopje, 10 August 2022 (MIA) – Thirty two percent of the respondents in the survey carried out by the Agency for Electronic Communications said the minors in their household on average spend more than five hours online.  “Nearly half of the respondents or 46.3 percent are aware of parental control software which would enable a safe online experience for those younger than 18. Only 10.2 percent of them have already installed such software, whereas from the respondents who don’t have such software but are aware of its existence, around 61 percent said they would install it. Around 10 percent of the respondents have a positive opinion when it comes to installing parental control software, and they know where to find it,” show the key findings of the report of the survey on the protection of users of electronic services.  In the last four years, the findings show, there has been a rising trend in the number of households where internet access is used by minors. In 2022, 43.2 percent of respondents said that minors use the internet in their households, 85.6 percent of them said that minors in their household use the internet on a daily basis.  According to the survey, the number of internet users in the household has increased from 79 percent to 89 percent in the last five years. Of all the respondents that have an internet connection in their household, only 29.5 percent know the speed of the internet connection that their internet provider should provide, while 76.8 percent believe they are getting the expected connection speed and amount of data from their internet provider.  According to the findings, in the last four years there has been a rise in respondents who have faced some kind of an issue while using the internet at home, namely in 2022 only 29 percent of respondents did not have any issues with their internet connection. The most common internet issues identified by the survey are connection speed (34.2 percent), interruptions/lack of internet connection (30.6 percent) and issues with the technical equipment.  Because of the interruptions or the lack of internet connection in the last 12 months, 38.4 percent of households have contacted their internet provider and 55.7 percent of them have had the reported issue resolved on the same day.  “Around 27 percent of households with internet access have complained to their provider by phone, 30.7 percent of respondents said they are completely satisfied with the answer they received from their internet provider. Only 1.6 percent of households with internet access sent written complaints to their internet providers,” show the findings.  The survey was carried out from April 13 until March 15 this year, on a random representative sample of 1,100 respondents aged 18 and above, who use some of the electronic communication services: fixed telephony, mobile telephony, internet and television.  The sample is representative in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and place of residence, based on official data from the 2021 Census, which was available at the time of the survey. ad/nn/