Use of instant messaging (IM) by Canadian youth aged 9-17

Canadian kids are big users of IM technology:

• More than half of Canadian kids (56 per cent) use the Internet for instant messaging (IM), and 27 per cent use it every day, or almost every day.
  
  
• However, only 28 per cent of parents are aware that their children use IM.
  
  
• Secondary school kids, particularly girls, are more likely than those in elementary school to use instant messaging services.
  
  
• The average size of most kids' IM list is about 30 people - more for kids in secondary school.

Risks of using instant messaging

Many kids are talking with strangers through their instant messaging service:

• Among kids who use IM, 66 per cent say they most often chat with friends, and 13 per cent say they IM with family members.
  
  
• But 12 per cent say they IM with people they have only met on the Internet.
  
  
• On average, secondary school kids have ten people on their IM list who they've never met in the real world - a figure that's higher for boys.
  
  
• Of the 11-12 year olds who use IM (39 per cent in elementary school and 61 per cent in secondary school), half say they IM with people they have only met online.
  
  
• Of the 13-14-year-olds who use IM (69 per cent), six out of ten converse with people they've only met online.
  
  
• For 15-17-year-olds who use IM (70 per cent), that figure goes up to nearly three-quarters (71 per cent).
  
  
• More than one in ten kids who use IM (13 per cent) say that someone has tried to use their name or password without their permission.
  
  
• And 14 per cent of the kids who use IM say that someone has threatened them. Boys were more likely to report this.

Young Canadians in a Wired World: The Students' View 2001 is a nationwide investigation of Internet use among Canadian youth that explores what kids do online, how they perceive the Internet, and what they know about it.

Canada's Children in a Wired World: The Parents' View 2000 is a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 Canadian parents, who were asked about their perceptions of the Internet and their awareness of the benefits and risks it offers their children. Selected findings from the parent survey are compared to data from the student survey.