North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere.  It covers an area of about 9,365,000mi² (24,256,000km²), approximately 16.3% of its land area.¹  It is the third-largest continent in terms of area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.

North America has a population of 353,860,227.²  Internet users as at December 2013 stood at 300,287,577 or 84.9% of the population.³  The region had 182,403,640 Facebook users as at September, 2012.  

In Q4 of 2012 the total number of mobile subscribers in North America was approximately 344,743,000 and in Q4 of 2013 the total was approximately 340,522,000, a year-on-year decrease of 1.22%.⁴  This figure includes both contract and pre-paid connections.

The inhabitants of North America have easy access to a broad range of material relating to online safety.  With the U.S. and Canada providing the bulk of the available information, residents in Mexico also have resources such as the Internet Security Alliance.

Both the U.S. and Canada have robust federal legislation to deal with the broad range of offenses which could be committed against children as a result of Internet use.  They also benefit from a range of organizations who act as advocates for online safety and the engagement of industry players who work with government to bring about positive change.

All countries in the region benefit from recent research into the online habits of children, identifying trends and areas of potential risk in computer and cell phone use.

Data Privacy Day is an annual event observed in the United States, Canada and Europe.  It encourages individuals, industry and governments to raise awareness of privacy and data protection issues.  Supporters of the day include Microsoft, Google and Intel.  Further information about the event, held on January 28, is available at http://www.staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/

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Sources

Page last reviewed September 12, 2014

¹ http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/continents/Land.shtml (last accessed April 12, 2013)
² http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm (last accessed September 12, 2014)
³ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm (last accessed September 12, 2014)
⁴ https://gsmaintelligence.com/ (last accessed September 12, 2014)