The survey was conducted by the Italian Publishers Association and addressed the 14-24 age group.  It demonstrates that ‘traditional’ use of the internet is still popular.  84% of young surfers use search engines at least once a week, 66% send or receive e-mails and 27% use the net to find material useful for study or work.

New use of the internet and the concept of ‘sharing’ have become important. Young people don’t perceive themselves as passive subjects of the net, but as active, key players who create and exchange content.  Participation and sharing have become the new “rules”. 38% of the surfers use the internet at least once a week to chat and participate in blogs or forums.  15% upload personal thoughts, poems, feelings in their personal blog.

16% of the surfers, and 25% of the ‘frequent users’, have uploaded personal photos on sites shared with friends at least once.  42% of the surfers admit to having downloaded at least one file in the last year through file sharing without paying. 50% of Italian youths said they were concerned by copyright issues, even if they don’t all respect the rules.  The other half said they were not concerned at all.