TOKYO – A majority of people aged 15 to 39 in Japan approve of limiting children’s use of social networking services, but support was lowest among teenagers, a government survey showed Monday, highlighting a generational divide.
Support was above 50 percent in all age groups for both genders, but higher among women than men, topping 70 percent among female respondents aged 35 to 39, according to the first large-scale survey of its kind by the Children and Families Agency.
In July, an agency expert panel said in an interim report on protecting children who use social media that discussions should be stepped up on whether to introduce uniform age-based usage restrictions. The latest findings are expected to be used in future debate.
The online survey from May 20 targeted about 100,000 male and female respondents nationwide under the age of 40 and the agency released preliminary results by age group and gender.
Asked whether it is necessary to restrict use by children below a certain age, the combined share of respondents choosing “I think so” or “I somewhat think so” was highest among those aged 35 to 39 for both genders, at 56.4 percent for men and 71.7 percent for women.
By contrast, the share was lowest among those aged 15 to 19, at 53.2 percent for male respondents and 59.7 percent for female respondents. Among 15-year-olds specifically, the figure dipped below half for both boys and girls.
The survey also found that the younger the age group, the higher the share who said they sometimes feel bad about themselves when viewing social media posts about other people’s lives, with 45.4 percent of male respondents and 58.4 percent of female respondents aged 15 to 19 giving this answer.
