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family income is under 20,000. However, home use is slightly more prevalent thanschool use for two groups: (1) children and adolescents whose parents have at leastsome graduate school education, and (2) children and adolescents who live in familieswith incomes of 75,000 or more per year.4 Use of home computers for playing games and for work on school assignmentsare common activities. A majority (59 percent) of 5- through 17-year-olds use homecomputers to play games, and over 40 percent use computers to connect to theInternet (46 percent) and to complete school assignments (44 percent) (table 4).Middle-school-age and high-school-age youth (ages 11–17) use home computers tocomplete school assignments (57–64 percent), to connect to the Internet (54-63percent), and to play games (60-63 percent). Home is the most common location for Internet access, followed by school.Although nearly all schools have Internet access, children and adolescents are morelikely to access the Internet from their homes (table 6). Of those children andadolescents who use the Internet, 78 percent access it at home, compared to 68percent who access it at school. Many of those who rely more on access at schoolcome from lower income families (less than 35,000 per year) or have parents whohave not earned at least a high school credential. Many disadvantaged children and adolescents use the Internet only at school.Among the group of children and adolescents who access the Internet at only onelocation, 52 percent of those from families in poverty and 59 percent of those whoseparents have not earned at least a high school credential do so at school. Incomparison, 26 percent of those from families not in poverty and 39 percent of thosewith more highly educated parents do so only at school. This illustrates the role ofschools in bridging the digital divide (table 7). Considering all locations, use of the Internet for work on school assignments, email, and games are common activities. About 72 percent of Internet users ages 5–17 (or 42 percent of all youth in this age range) use the Internet to complete school4The prevalence of the use of a technology is measured in this report by the percentage of 5–17 year-olds using thetechnology. This report does not examine other aspects of the frequency of use, such as the number of incidents ofuse or the amount of time spent using technologies, because the CPS does not include these data.vi

assignments, while 65 percent of users (38 percent of all persons 5–17) use theInternet for e-mail or instant messaging and 62 percent of users (36 percent of allpersons 5–17) use it to play games (tables 8 and 9).vii

ContentsAcknowledgements. iiiHighlights. ivList of Tables . ixList of Figures . xIntroduction. 1Current Use and User Characteristics . 3Home and School Computer Use. 11Home Computer Activities . 15Internet Access Locations . 22Internet Activities. 29Conclusions. 37Methodological and Technical Notes . 39References. 51viii

List of TablesTable 1. Percentage of children and adolescents age 5–17 who use computers and theInternet, by child and family/household characteristics: 2001 .4Table 2. Logistic regression analyses of child and family/household characteristics andcomputer and Internet use: 2001 .9Table 3. Percentage of children and adolescents age 5–17 using computers at home and atschool, by child and family/household characteristics: 2001 . .12Table 4. Percentage of persons age 5–17 using home computers for specific activities, bychild and family/household characteristics: 2001 . .16Table 5. Percentage of home computer users age 5–17 who use home computers forspecific activities, by child and family/household characteristics: 2001 .19Table 6. Percentage of Internet users age 5–17 who use the Internet at specific locations,by child and family/household characteristics: 2001 .23Table 7. Percentage of children and adolescents who use the Internet at only one location,by child and family/household characteristics and by location of use: 2001 26Table 8. Percentage of persons age 5–17 using the Internet for specific activities, byselected characteristics: 2001 . 30Table 9. Percentage of Internet users age 5–17 using the Internet for specific activities, byselected characteristics: 2001 .33Table A1. Percentage of children and adolescents age 5–17 who use computers and theInternet, by age: 2001 . . . . . . . . . 53Table A2. Percentage of adults who use computers and the Internet, by selectedcharacteristics: 2001 . .54Table A3. Characteristics of persons age 5–17: 2001 55Table A4. Characteristics of persons age 5–17 using computers at home and at school:2001 56ix

List of FiguresFigure 1. Percentage of 5–17-year-olds using computers or the Internet, by age: 2001 . 5Figure 2. Percentage of children and adolescents using computers at home and at school, byparent educational attainment: 2001 . 13Figure 3. Percentage of children and adolescents using computers at home and at school, byfamily income: 2001 . 14Figure 4. Percentage of children and adolescents using computers at home and at school, byrace/ethnicity: 2001. 14Figure 5. Percentage of children and adolescents age 5–17 who use the Internet at only onelocation, by location and poverty status: 2001. 28x

IntroductionComputers and the Internet recently passed a milestone: both are now used by a majorityof Americans. Two-thirds of Americans used computers in 2001, up from about one-half in1997, and 54 percent used the Internet, up from about a third in 1997. Comparable trend datahave not been published for 5- to 17-year-olds, but among those ages 9 to 17, Internet use hasincreased from about one third in 1997 to about two thirds in 2001 (U.S. Department ofCommerce 2002). Currently, the use of these technologies is more widespread among childrenand adolescents ages 5 through 17 than among adults: about 90 percent of 5- to 17-year-olds usecomputers and 59 percent use the Internet (table 1).This report describes computer and Internet use by children and teens ages 5–17. Thisage range represents the modal ages for students in grades K-12, and has not been the focus ofprevious reports using the 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) data. The purpose of thisreport is to provide interested researchers, policymakers, and the general public with a detailedview of computer and Internet use, examining the rates of use, how these technologies are used,where they are used, and the characteristics of users. This information provides a portrait ofthose who are embracing these technologies in large numbers and those who have yet to do so.This report is based on data collected in the September Computer and Internet Usesupplement to the 2001 Current Population Survey. Interviews were conducted in approximately56,000 households. One respondent per household was interviewed and that respondentprovided information both about the household and about individual household members,including information pertaining to their computer and Internet use.1 Respondents providedinformation about the computer and Internet use experiences of 28,002 5- to 17-year-olds. Thefollowing questions are addressed using these data:1. What percentage of children and adolescents use computers and the Internet?1Because a household’s informant may not have full information regarding computer and Internet use by othermembers of the household (especially when that use occurs at school), this method is a potential source of error inthe data.1

2. Is use by children and adolescents related to age, socioeconomic and demographiccharacteristics such as race/ethnicity, family income, parents’ educational attainment,and other factors?3. How do children and adolescents use home computers and the Internet?4. Where do children and adolescents use computers? Where do they use the Internet?How many users use the Internet in only one place, and what locations do these usersfavor?5. Do the ways children and adolescents use computers and the Internet, and where theyuse them, vary by children’s and adolescents’ demographic or socioeconomiccharacteristics?All statistical comparisons in this report were tested for significance at the 95 percentconfidence level (p .05), and all reported differences are statistically significant, unlessotherwise noted.2

Current Use and User CharacteristicsGrowth Over TimeRates of computer and Internet use by children and adolescents have increased rapidly.In 1984, data from the Current Population Survey indicated that 27 percent of students (from prekindergarten through college) used computers at school. By 1989 this number had increased to43 percent; by 1997 it was 69 percent. Student use of computers at home has also shownincreases, rising from 12 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 1989, 27 percent in 1993, and 45percent in 1997 (U.S. Department of Education 1999). Internet use by children and adolescentsof elementary and high school age has also increased rapidly, growing from about one third of 9through 17-year-olds in 1997 to about two thirds in 2001 (U.S. Department of Commerce 2002).Current UseTable 1 shows that about 90 percent of children and adolescents age 5 through 17 (47million persons) use computers and about 59 percent (31 million persons) use the Internet.Figure 1 graphs the relationship between age and the use of these technologies (data shown inappendix table A1). About three quarters of children already use computers by the age of five,and a majority use the Internet by the age of nine. Among high-school-age youth (ages 15–17),more than 90 percent use computers and at least three quarters use the Internet.3

Table 1. Percentage of children and adolescents age 5–17 who use computers and the Internet, bychild and family/household characteristics: 2001CharacteristicsTotal (persons age 5–17)Child an IndianDisability statusDisabledNot disabledFamily & household characteristicsParent educational attainmentLess than high school credentialHigh school credentialSome collegeBachelor's degreeGraduate educationFamily/household typeTwo parent householdMale householderFemale householderOther arrangementHousehold languageSpanish-onlyNot Spanish-onlyPoverty statusIn povertyNot in povertyFamily incomeUnder 20,000 20,000– 34,999 35,000– 49,999 50,000– 74,999 75,000 or moreUrbanicityMetropolitan, city centerMetropolitan, not city centerNon-metropolitanNumber ofchildren(in thousands)Percent usingcomputersPercents.e.Percent using 1.959.71.030.721.401White, Black, Asian, and American Indian respectively indicate White, non-Hispanic; Black, nonHispanic; Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic; and American Indian, Aleut, or Eskimo, nonHispanic.NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Detail may not sum to total due to rounding or missing data.SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, September 2001.4

Figure 1. Percentage of 5–17 year-olds using computers or the Internet, by age: 11121314151617AgeSOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, September 2001.“Digital Divide”Although the adoption of these technologies has been rapid, it has occurred at disparaterates in different parts of American society. How computers and the Internet are used, andwhether they are used at all, often vary by socioeconomic status (assessed in this report withmeasures of parent educational attainment, poverty status and/or family income) and othercharacteristics such as race/ethnicity, household composition, and urbanicity, such that theinequality of use has been termed a “digital divide” (U.S. Department of Commerce 1998; Norris2001). This is particularly true of adults. While 82 percent of adults with an annual familyincome over 75,000 used the Internet in 2001, only 24 percent of adults with an annual familyincome below 20,000 did so (table A2). Large racial/ethnic and educational differences exist aswell. Sixty percent of White and Asian adults used the Internet, compared to 47 percent ofAmerican Indians, 39 percent of Blacks, and 31 percent of Hispanics. 2 About 80 percent ofadult college graduates used the Internet, but 42 percent with only a high school education wereInternet users, and the rate of Internet use was only 17 percent among adults who had not2“White,” “Black,” “Asian,” and “American Indian” refer to White non-Hispanic; Black non-Hispanic; Asian orPacific Islander, non-Hispanic; and American Indian, Aleut, or Eskimo, non-Hispanic, respectively, and will be usedthroughout this report for ease of presentation. Hispanics may be of any race.5

graduated from high school. This digital divide exists for children and adolescents as well,though many differences are smaller than those found between various groups of adults.Table 1 shows computer and Internet use rates by individual, family, and householdcharacteristics for 5–17-year-olds.3 Looking at individual characteristics, older adolescents areas much as 20 percentage points more likely to use computers than younger children and asmuch as 50 percentage points more likely to use the Internet (table A1). White 5–17-year-oldsare more likely to use these technologies than their Black or Hispanic counterparts. In addition,those who are not disabled are more likely to use computers and the Internet than those withdisabilities.The family and household settings children and adolescents experience are also related tocomputer and Internet use. Five- through seventeen-year-olds from two-parent households aremore likely to use these technologies than those from single-parent households,4 and those livingwith more highly educated parents are more likely to use these technologies than those livingwith less well educated parents. In addition, those living in households where Spanish is not theonly language spoken are more likely to use computers and the Internet than those living inSpanish monolingual homes. Children and adolescents in families with higher incomes are morelikely to use computers and the Internet than those in families with lower incomes. Children andadolescents who live outside of central cities are more likely to use computers and the Internetthan those living in central cities.A closer look at these differences provides a better picture of the magnitude of thedifferences in technology use between certain groups of children and adolescents. For instance,the rate of computer use for Black 5–17-year-olds is 8 percentage points lower than that of theirWhite counterparts, and the difference in Internet use is even more pronounced at 21 percentagepoints. Differences between Whites and Hispanics are even larger (15 percentage points and 303Appendix table A3 shows the characteristics of users and non-users, indicating the number and percentage of allusers and non-users who belong to selected groups.4The categories for family structure in the CPS data are “two parent, male-headed single-householder, femaleheaded single-householder, and other arrangement.” When referring to the single householder categories, we use“single parent” or “single father” and “single mother” for ease of presentation. Some single-householders includenon-relatives or relatives other than the father or mother such as a grandfather or grandmother.6

percentage points, respectively). Among all racial/ethnic groups, Hispanics have the lowest ratesof computer and Internet use, while Whites and Asians have the highest rates. Approximately 76percent of children and adolescents from households where no parent has graduated from highschool use computers and 32 percent of them use the Internet. Approximately 96 percent ofchildren and adolescents from households where at least one parent attended graduate school usecomputers and 74 percent of them use the Internet. Eighty percent of poor 5- through 17-yearolds use computers compared to 93 percent of non-poor children, and the difference in Internetuse is even larger.There is also a clear difference in children’s and adolescents’ use in households whereSpanish is the only language spoken compared to other households. For children andadolescents living in households that are Spanish-monolingual, the rate of computer use is 20percentage points lower than those in households where other languages (usually English) arespoken. Internet use by 5-through 17-year olds in Spanish-monolingual households is about halfthat of 5-through 17-year olds in households where Spanish is not the only language spoken.Disabilities are another source of differences. Adults with a disability are roughly half aslikely to use the Internet as non-disabled adults and even less likely to have ever used a computer(U.S. Department of Commerce 2000). Adults with visual impairments use computers and theInternet at significantly lower rates than the rest of the adult population (Gerber and Kirchner2001). The differences between disabled and non-disabled 5- through 17-year-olds are smallerthan those found for adults, but they still exist. Comparing 5- through 17-year-olds with andwithout disabilities, the rates of computer and Internet use are both about 10 percentage pointslower for those with disabilities.One important difference in use has all but disappeared, however. In the past, males haveused computers and the Internet at significantly higher rates than females (Clemente 1998;Riccobono 1986) and have reported more experience and skill with these technologies(Schumacher and Morahan-Martin 2001). More recently, as the use of these technologies hasbecome more widespread, this gender gap has closed for both adults and children, and amongboth adults and youths today there are now no differences between the sexes in overall computer7

or Internet use rates (U.S. Department of Commerce 2002; Miller, Schweingruber, andBrandenburg 2001, reporting on computers only). Figures in table 1 and appendix table A2 areconsistent with this pattern.In order to study how various factors related to computer and Internet use behave whenthey are looked at simultaneously, multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.Regressions can help answer questions such as, “If one controls for parent education, is familyincome still positively related to Internet use?”Table 2 shows the results of regression analyses of the characteristics associated withcomputer and Internet use discussed to this point.5 Table 2 verifies several of the key findingsabout the digital divide that were shown in table 1. Increases in age,6 parental education, andfamily income are all associated with an increase in a child’s odds of using computers and theInternet. Black and Hispanic children are less likely to use computers and the Internet thanWhite children, and As

complete school assignments (57-64 percent), to connect to the Internet (54-63 percent), and to play games (60-63 percent). Home is the most common location for Internet access, followed by school. Although nearly all schools have Internet access, children and adolescents are more likely to access the Internet from their homes (table 6).