UK Children Go Online: Surveying the Experiences of Young People and Their Parents

This nationwide survey of 1,500 children aged 9-19 and their parents is part of a research project carried out by UK Children Go Online (UKCGO). Between January and March 2004, researchers conducted in-home, face-to-face interviews, lasting some 40 minutes, of 1,511 children and 906 parents across the United Kingdom. This 64-page document complements the project's qualitative report on young people's experiences of the Internet.

Selections from the Executive Summary follow:

"Key findings on access and inequalities

Internet access and use is widespread among UK children and young people, being considerably higher than among adults and among the highest in Europe. However, significant inequalities persist especially in home access. Continuing changes in the nature and quality of access indicate fast-rising standards and expectations.

Among all 9-19 year olds:

• Home access is growing: Three quarters (75%) have accessed the internet from a computer at home. Currently, 74% have internet access via a computer, games console or digital television while one quarter of 9-19 year olds (23%) have never accessed the internet on a computer from home, and 29% currently lack such access...
• School access is near universal: 92% have accessed the internet at school, and one quarter (24%) have access at school but not at home. However, two thirds (64%) have also used the internet elsewhere...
• Socio-economic differences are sizeable: 88% of middle class but only 61% of working class children have accessed the internet at home; 86% of children in areas of low deprivation in England have used the internet on a computer at home compared with 66% in areas of high deprivation...
• Homes with children lead in gaining internet access: They are also now acquiring multiple computers plus broadband access to the internet - 36% have more than one computer at home, and 24% live in a household with broadband access...
• Access platforms are diversifying: 87% have a computer at home (71% with internet access), 62% have digital television (17% with internet access), 82% have a games console (8% with internet access), and 81% have their own mobile phone (38% with internet access)...
• Many computers in private rooms...

Key findings on the nature of internet use

Most young people use the internet frequently though often for moderate amounts of time. They use the internet for a wide range of purposes, not all of which are socially approved....

Key findings on education, learning and literacy

...there is considerable scope for increasing the internetrelated skills and literacy of both children and their parents. Many children are using the internet without skills in critical evaluation, and many parents lack the skills to guide and support their children's internet use...

...Key findings on communication and participation

Rather than seeing face to face communication as automatically superior, young people evaluate the different forms of communication available to them according to distinct communicative needs. The mobile phone is fast overtaking the desktop computer as a prioritised means of communication.

Among 9-19 year olds who use the internet at least once a week:

• The mobile phone is the preferred method of communication: Whether for passing time, making arrangements, getting advice, gossiping or flirting, the phone and text messaging are preferred over emailing or instant messaging (IM)...
• Most online communication is with local friends...
• Talking online is less satisfying but has its advantages...
• Not all use is receptive but, rather, interactive...
• Some are interested in civic issues...

...A new divide

No longer are children and young people only or even mainly divided by those with and without access, though 'access' is a moving target in terms of its speed, location, quality and support, and inequalities in access persist.

Children and young people are divided into those for whom the internet is an increasingly rich, diverse, engaging and stimulating resource of growing importance in their lives, and those for whom it remains a narrow, unengaging if occasionally useful resource of rather less significance.

Hence, a new divide is opening up, one centred on the quality of use. The UKCGO survey finds that middle class children, children with internet access at home, children with broadband access and children whose parents use the internet more often are more likely to be daily users and so to experience the internet as a rich, if risky, medium than are less privileged children."