Connected to the Future
A Report on Children's Internet Use, 2002
American children regardless of their age, income, or ethnicity, greatly increased their use of the Internet from home, school, or library over the past two years. Yet even with these growth trends, children from under-served populations still significantly lag behind more advantaged children both in home and school access. This report from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting examines both the trends and the implications of children connecting to the Internet — and to their future.
- Connected to the Future 249KB
Methodology
Connected to the Future is a public report based on data obtained from four interrelated surveys developed and managed by Grunwald Associates. Fieldwork, tabulation and initial analysis were conducted by C&R Research.
A telephone survey among a national Random Digit Dial (RDD) stratified sample of 1,044 parents or guardians of children 2-17 was conducted in July 2002. The results of this survey were used to generate general population estimates of computer ownership and Internet usage among households with children.
A series of three online surveys—two among children and one among their parents—was conducted to capture in-depth information about use of technology and media and related attitudes among Internet-enabled U.S. family households. All three of the surveys were conducted with online family household samples obtained from C&R Research’s National Panel, KidzEyes.com. Children ages 6 to 17 were surveyed directly through two online surveys—a pre-summer wave that fielded in May-June 2002, and a summer wave that fielded August 2002. In the pre-summer wave, C&R conducted 2,737 full interviews, netting a final sample of 2,228 after balancing and weighting. Of this sample, 1,365 completed the subsequent summer wave, netting a final summer sample of 996 after balancing and weighting. Questions about school use were asked of children during the school-year wave, while many other questions were asked in both the school year and summer waves. The parents and guardians of children ages 2 to 17 were interviewed in a single-wave online survey that fielded in August 2002 and collected 1,355 interviews.
The three online surveys were balanced and weighted on several demographic variables to match Census data regarding the online U.S. population of family households.