Parents and governmental agencies must pay greater attention to the emergence of disturbing trends in the use of smartphones by young people, the Child Welfare League Foundation said.
The foundation made the appeal based on the results of a survey it conducted from May 16 to June 14 among fifth to eighth -grade students, which point to the growing prevalence of smartphone addiction.
The survey, released on Monday, found that 39 percent of respondents had smartphones, up from close to 20 percent in the foundation’s previous survey in 2011. The poll also found that those who had smartphones were using them longer and more often.
Photo: CNN, courtesy of the Child Welfare League Foundation
Among the respondents who own one of the devices, 13.9 percent said they use it for more than three hours a day on weekdays and 19 percent said they use it for more than 5 hours a day on weekends.
The most common activities to do on a smartphone: listening to music (85 percent), playing games (78 percent), using Facebook (68.6 percent) and chatting with friends on instant messaging applications like Line, WeChat and Whatsapp (64.6 percent), the survey found.
The poll found that 77.6 percent of respondents had downloaded and used apps on their phones.
The foundation said the survey revealed three worrying trends: the rise in the penetration of smartphones among young people, the increasing length of time young people use the gadgets and the growing rate of app downloads.
These trends, in turn, signal three potential crises, the foundation said.
The first is the rising addiction to the devices, with 36 percent of respondents saying they would feel unhappy, anxious or angry if they could not use their phone, and 19.8 percent reporting that they had fought with their parents because of restrictions to phone use.
Young smartphone users are also more exposed to the risks of befriending strangers on social networking sites, the foundation said, citing the 32 percent of respondents who said they added strangers to their circle of friends while using apps and the 23 percent who had met their new friends in person.
Another potential crisis was that most of the young smartphone users — 63 percent — were not familiar with the grading system for apps and could be downloading inappropriate or malicious content, the foundation said.
The survey received 2,483 valid samples and the margin of error was plus or minus-2 percentage points.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
RSS