NATIONAL CENTRE for SOCIAL RESEARCH 2017 the Internet in Greece FINAL REPORT
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NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH 2017 The Internet in Greece FINAL REPORT Athens, May 2017 CREDITS WIP Representative in Greece & Principal Investigator Professor Nicolas Demertzis National Centre for Social Research National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Core Research Team Christina Frentzou Apostolos Linardis National Centre for Social Research Contributing Authors Nicolas Demertzis Paraskevi Fagadaki Amalia Frangiskou Christina Frentzou Katerina Iliou Dimitra Kondyli Apostolos Linardis Konstantinos Vadratsikas National Centre for Social Research Research Consultants & Associates Stelios Stylianou Aspasia Trevlaki Research Assistants Aggeliki Kazani Sotirios Valaris Labrina Vetsopoulou Gerasimos Gourvas Dimitri Dedousssis Charalambos Kalpanis George Nicolopoulos Vaia Papathanassiou Vavsika Serepisiou Yannis Togias Anastasia Tsounaka Preferred Citation: National Centre for Social Research (2017) The Internet in Greece 2016. Principal investigator N. Demertzis Contents 1. CREDITS ............................................................................................................................ 3 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 5 3. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 8 About Greece and Greek ICT infrastructure ............................................................... 8 The WIP 2nd wave in Greece ...................................................................................... 10 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 10 4. INTERNET ACCESS AND USE ........................................................................................... 12 Internet use ............................................................................................................... 12 Internet Access .......................................................................................................... 15 5. DIGITAL DIVIDES ............................................................................................................. 17 6. INTERNET USES .............................................................................................................. 23 Communication ......................................................................................................... 23 Information ............................................................................................................... 24 Online Transactions ................................................................................................... 26 Entertainment ........................................................................................................... 27 Learning ..................................................................................................................... 28 7. PERCEPTIONS, EXPRIENCES AND CONCERNS ................................................................. 30 Perception on Internet Information’s Reliability ...................................................... 30 Online victimization .................................................................................................. 31 Privacy Violations ...................................................................................................... 32 Privacy Concerns ....................................................................................................... 32 8. POLITICAL EFFICACY ....................................................................................................... 34 9. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ............................................................................................. 35 10. INTERNET DEPENDENCY ................................................................................................. 36 11. DEMOGRAPHICS ............................................................................................................. 37 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Usage students is almost universal, while employed and unemployed Internet use in Greece is relatively high. respondents also exhibit remarkably Over 60% of the population aged 15 high usage percentages. Moreover, and over report themselves as internet more than half the housewives/ users. More than 80% of non-users househusbands identify themselves as state that the main reasons for not internet users, while on the contrary, using the internet are lack of technical internet use among retired people knowledge and lack of interest. Almost remains significantly low with only one all internet users connect to internet fourth of the respondents confirming via a home internet connection, while internet use. two thirds of them use the internet via a mobile connection. Nearly half of the employed users and students connect Online activities to the internet via a connection at work and at school respectively, while more Communication than one third of them go online using a public connection or a connection at Electronic mail and instant messaging their neighbors’. Computers are the are by far the most common online most widely used devices to connect to communication activities. Phone calls the internet, while phones are used by over the internet are also quite 80 per cent of the users. Tablets and e- popular, although most users report readers are less popular as they are that they post their own original used by less than half of the user content online or share other people’s population. content once a month or less frequently. Digital Divides Information A divide in internet use is noticed between urban and rural areas, as Internet use for obtaining various kinds urban residents use the internet of information, involves mostly reading significantly more than rural residents. news online. Additionally, reading blogs A smaller but visible division is found and looking for product information is between genders as men connect to very common, as more than half of the the internet more than women. Age respondents engage in these activities seems to be negatively associated with on a weekly basis or more frequently. internet use, while education and Similarly, nearly two thirds of the income exhibit a positive, almost linear, respondents are looking for health association. Internet use among information and comparing product prices at least once a month or more overwhelming majority of the often, while, on the contrary, accessing interviewed students report using the information for job placements and internet in order to complete school- travel information are not very popular related work, while participation to activities among Greek internet users. online academic or professional training courses is very rare. Transactions Internet dependency Overall, using the internet for online transactions is very rare among Greek Overall, Greek internet users express internet users. The majority of the moderate dependence on the internet respondents report that they use the as they place themselves marginally internet less than once a month in over the middle in a scale showing how order to make online purchases or much they would be affected if their online sales, book travel reservations, internet access expired. Young and pay bills or use online banking services. highly educated people, as well as Also, nearly all the respondents said people with the highest income, exhibit that they never make online the highest dependence on the investments. internet. Entertainment Internet reliability On the contrary, internet activities for Greek users are uncertain regarding the entertainment are very popular among reliability of information on the Greek users, with visiting social internet, as the vast majority assumes a networking websites being the most neutral or moderate position on that common activity. Music and video question. Very few respondents are downloading are also very popular certain that all online information is activities, followed by playing online either reliable or unreliable. games. Visiting religious websites and Online victimization is low or of minor websites with sexual content are less significance among Greek users. common, while the overwhelming Phenomena of online harassment are majority reports that they never rare as are cases of credit card fraud, gamble online or visit websites for , banking fraud and online purchases online dating fraud. Accidentally arriving to Learning activities pornographic content is more frequent, as is receiving computer viruses. As far as online learning activities are concerned, Greek internet users frequently turn to the internet for fact checking or looking up a word. Also, an Privacy online affect government decisions or that public officials will be more interested Privacy violations over the internet are in their opinions. Overall, WIP very uncommon among Greek users participants in Greece are divided on and, when they occur, the whether or not internet use will consequences are usually limited to increase their political power. users’ embarrassment without creating any other significant problem. Although Freedom of expression most respondents state that they have Greek internet users show similar nothing to hide, the majority reports ambivalence towards matters related that they are actively protecting their to self-reported political expression privacy online, expressing concerns online. An overwhelming majority about privacy violations