30% of Japanese elementary, middle, and high school students routinely use generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT, and their average daily Internet usage time exceeded 5 hours, breaking the longest record ever.
According to the results of a survey on youth Internet use released by Japan’s Children’s and Families Administration, the use rate of Generative AI such as Copilot and Gemini was 29.5% last year.
Elementary school students accounted for 8.6 percent, middle school students for 30.8 percent, and high school students for 46.2 percent. The average daily Internet usage time (weekdays) of teenagers was 5 hours and 27 minutes, up 25 minutes from the previous year, the longest since the survey began.
As for the purpose of use (duplex response), “watching videos” was the most common at 92.1%, followed by search (86%), game (84.9%), SNS communication (77.4%), and learning (65.2%).
“Side effects such as using AI to create inappropriate images are also being identified,” an official at the Children’s and Family Administration told the Yomiuri Shimbun. “We plan to strengthen guidance activities for youth to prevent Internet dependence and inappropriate use of AI.”
The survey was conducted between November and December last year on 5,000 teenagers aged 10 to 17, and 3,60 responded.
The Children’s and Families Administration has been conducting the survey since 2009, but this is the first time that the use of Generative AI has been included in the survey items.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
