June 13, 2023 Announcement of Issuance of FY2022 Internet Literacy Assessment Indicator for Students

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has released a report entitled “FY2022 Internet Literacy Assessment Indicator for Students,” which outlines the results of a fact-finding survey conducted on youths’ Internet literacy.

1. Background and content

As a prerequisite for improving the Internet literacy of youths, MIC developed a test (see note 1) in fiscal 2011 as an indicator to visualize the Internet literacy of youths and the current situation in dealing with dangers and threats on the Internet. Since fiscal 2012, MIC has been conducting a yearly survey on high school first-year students to effectively assess the Internet literacy of youths, with a questionnaire about the usage situation of ICT, including the Internet.
In fiscal 2022, MIC conducted a test and a questionnaire survey on 15,333 students from 100 schools (see note 2). The result was aggregated and analyzed, and the “FY2022 Internet Literacy Assessment Indicator for Students” report was compiled as shown in the attachment in PDF.

Note 1: Internet Literacy Assessment Indicator for Students (ILAS):
Each user’s abilities to maintain Internet literacy and appropriately judge information concerning morals and the danger or threat on the Internet were classified into three major categories and seven middle categories, and multiple-choice questions were prepared for each ability. Then the respective abilities were visualized by quantifying them.

[Risk-dealing skills necessary for youths]

1. The ability to cope appropriately with illegal and harmful contents on the Internet

[Risk-dealing skills necessary for youths]

• a.
  To understand the problem of illegal content and deal with it appropriately.
  [Illegal information]
• b.
  To understand the problem of harmful content and deal with it appropriately.
  [Harmful information]

2. The ability to communicate appropriately on the Internet

[Ability to cope with inappropriate usage]

• a.
  To be able to read information and communicate appropriately.
  [Inappropriate contact]
• b.
  To understand and be able to deal with e-commerce issues properly.
  [Improper transactions]
• c.
  To be able to use the Internet with consideration of the usage fees and time spent.
  [Inappropriate usage]

3. The ability to protect privacy and security on the Internet

[Ability to deal with privacy and security]

• a.
  To be able to use the Internet with consideration for privacy protection.
  [Privacy risks]
• b.
  To be able to use the Internet by taking appropriate security measures.
  [Security risks]

Note 2: For the 2022 survey, some questions were revised and updated after a pretest to examine new question content to reflect today’s Internet usage environment. In order to demonstrate its continuity, the test was divided into two types: A pretest (same content as before for 3,083 examinees) and a post-test (for 12,250 examinees).

2. Summary of survey results for FY2022

• The overall correct response rate for the abovementioned test was 71.1%. Regarding the correct response rate for each of the seven categories, “2c. Risk of inappropriate usage” (79.7%) and “2a. Risk of inappropriate contact” (77.6%) were high. In contrast, the correct response rate for “2b. Risk of improper transactions” (60.3%) and “3a. Risk of privacy” (66.2%) were low.
• See the Attachment for a breakdown of other survey targets, details on test results such as trends in correct response rates, and the questionnaire survey results on the Internet use of high school students.

• *
  The published materials are in Japanese only.