Topping the "strongly agree" list: Mexico (86%), Brazil (83%) and South Korea (71%). Leading the other extreme, "strongly disagree": Japan (13%), Pakistan (11%) and the United States (11%).

Of the 1,053 U.S. respondents 18 and older, 51% strongly agreed that Internet access is a fundamental human right and 25% somewhat agreed. (10% somewhat disagreed.)

Overall, Chinese showed more support than Americans: 55% strongly agreed that Net access should be a basic human right and 34% somewhat agreed. Only 2% strongly disagreed; 5% disagreed somewhat.

Finland and Estonia have enshrined Net access as a human right for their citizens.

As for the statement "The Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere," which country topped the anti-regulation, anti-censorship list? Nigeria, where 51% of respondents strongly agreed, followed by South Korea (49%). At the bottom, comfortably, Thailand, where 41% strongly disagreed. Overall, 53% of those surveyed in 26 countries said government should never regulate the Internet.

Participants were also asked whether they could cope without the Internet. Just over half (55%) strongly agreed or somewhat agreed. Among Americans, 34% agreed strongly, 30% agreed somewhat, 12% disagreed somewhat and 24% disagreed strongly.

Here's the USA summary:

Americans, like respondents in most countries surveyed, say that the most valuable use for the Internet is finding information. However, they are more likely than most to say that the Internet has given them greater freedom (85% compared to 78% worldwide). They are among the most likely to feel able to express this freedom in their speech, with 55% (compared to 48% worldwide) agreeing that the Internet is a safe place to express their opinions. Despite the immense success and popularity of many American dating websites, Americans are among the least likely to agree that the Internet is a good place to meet a boyfriend or a girlfriend: 21% say this, compared to 30% worldwide. As in Canada, the aspects of the Internet causing most concern to Americans are fraud and loss of privacy.

Read the details, including country-by-country results and charts, or keep reading for some survey highlights.

(Posted by Michael Winter)

• Nearly four in five (78%) said they felt it had brought them greater freedom, nine in 10 (90%) said they thought it was a good place to learn, and just over half (51%) said they now enjoyed spending their spare time on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace.

• Despite this enthusiasm, there is also concern, with many Web users cautious about speaking their minds online. The poll found that they were evenly split between those who felt that "the Internet is a safe place to express my opinions" (48%) and those who did not feel this (49%).

• Japan was among the countries where most Web users did not feel they could express their opinions safely online (65%), alongside South Korea (70%), France (69%), Germany (72%) and China (55%). In contrast, most Indians (70%), Ghanaians (74%) and Kenyans (73%) felt they could express their opinions safely.

• The poll also showed that most Internet users feel that the Internet should not be regulated by governments. More than half (53%) of Internet users agreed that "the Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere" —including large majorities in South Korea (83%), Nigeria (77%) and Mexico (72%). Forty-four percent admitted that they did not think they could cope without the Internet. Many more felt this way in Japan (84%), Mexico (81%) and Russia (71%), while fewer felt they could not cope without the Internet in Pakistan (19%), the Philippines (21%), Turkey (27%), Brazil and India (both 29%).

• The poll also found that fraud was the aspect of the Internet that caused people most concern, with 32% saying it was what worried them most. Fraud emerged as a greater public concern than violent and explicit content, which was mentioned by 27%, and threats to privacy, which were the major concern of one in five people (20%).