Approximately 98.8 percent school children in urban areas have access to the internet

As many as 98.8 percent school-going children access internet in urban areas and 49.5 percent of them do it from home, according to a survey released on Monday. The WebWise survey, done by mobile telecom operator Telenor India, was conducted across schools in 13 cities of India covering a sample size of 2,727 students. Over 43 percent of the surveyed students use mobile as the medium to access internet, followed by laptops, desktops and tablets. Children use internet to find information for school projects, playing games, reading online books, listening to music and watching movies, social networking sites, email, etc., the report said. “54.8 percent children share their passwords with friends,” it added. “Majority of children were willing to approach their parents in case they experience any cyber harm. Over 35 percent children have experienced their account being hacked while 15.74 percent shared that they have received inappropriate messages,” the report said. The survey said that Facebook is the most favourite platform, followed by WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram. This comes right after the report which stated that nearly 950 million Indians do not have an Internet connection, according to a joint study done by Assocham-Deloitte. The study titled ‘Strategic national measures to combat cybercrime’ said, “Existing government infrastructure assets should be further leveraged for provision of digital services at remote locations.” With inputs from IANS