Canadian youth are ahead of their parents - and on their own - in their explorations of the Internet, according to research findings released by the Media Awareness Network. Young Canadians in a Wired World, the most comprehensive and wide-ranging survey of its kind conducted in Canada, heard from 5,682 students between the ages of 9 and 17 in schools across Canada. The study found:

• When asked what online activities they like to do most, young people mentioned:
• playing and downloading music (57%)
• e-mail (56%)
• surfing for fun (50%)
• playing and downloading games (48%)
• instant messaging (IM) (40%), and
• chat rooms (39%) and
• homework (38%)
  
• As a homework tool, the Internet was ranked first (44%) among young people as their preferred information source, followed by books from the
  public library (19%) and books from school (16%).
  
• Canadian youth are no strangers to the Internet - 99% report that they've used the Internet at some point. Almost 8 in 10 (79%) say they have
  Internet access at home.
  
• Almost half (48%) say they use the Internet from home at least an hour every day, compared to 79% who say they watch television for an hour or
  more every day.
  
• When asked how much their parents know about the Web sites they visit, almost 4 in 10 young people (38%) say their parents know very little or
  nothing at all. Fewer than 2 in 10 (16%) say they think their parents know a great deal about the sites they visit.
  
• When parents were asked how much they knew about the sites their children visit, 71% said they knew a great deal or a fair bit. Fewer than 3
  in 10 (28%) parents said they knew very little or nothing at all about the Web sites their children visit.
  
• More than one-third (36%) of young people say they erase the history that shows what Web sites they've visited, always (12%) or sometimes (24%).About 2 in 10 of all young people (22%) say they don't know how to do this.
  
• When young people were asked how often their parents talk to them about what they do online, a large majority (70%) say their parents talk to
  them very little (38%) or not at all (32%). Just over 2 in 10 (24%) say their parents talk to them a great deal or a fair bit.
  
• When parents were asked how often they talked to their children about what they do online, 78% said they talk a great deal or a fair bit. Just over
  2 in 10 (22%) said they speak to their children about their Internet activities very little or not at all.