Posted on September 4, 2005

Science/Technology

Access to the Internet in homes with children between the ages of 7 and 17 has jumped from 15 percent in 1994 to 68 percent in 2003, with more than two-thirds of that increase occurring in households with annual incomes of more than $75,000. Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children: Where We Stand and Where We Go From Here (56 pages, PDF), a report from the Children's Partnership, starts with the proposition that access to technology increases opportunities for children and goes on to analyze technology's impact in four areas: educational achievement, healthier lives, economic opportunity, and community participation. The report also addresses the opportunity gap for low-income and ethnic-minority children and makes recommendations designed to level the playing field. Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with additional support from the Atlantic Philanthropies and Verizon, it also contains a "digital opportunity measuring stick" with forty indicators that can be used to chart progress in extending access to technology to all children.