Greg Toppo

USATODAY



Remember the “digital divide”? Well, forget it.

These days, the key divide isn’t between the digital “haves” and “have nots.” It’s between the fully-connected — people who enjoy multi-device home broadband and Wi-Fi— and the not-quite-fully-connected, who don’t.

New research shows that basic Internet access is nearly universal, even among low- and moderate-income U.S. families: an estimated 94% of these families have some kind of Internet access. Even among the poor, it stands at 91%.

But researchers now say many low-income families are “under-connected,” in many cases getting by with only a single Internet-connected computer or, quite often, with mobile-only Internet access through a smartphone or two.

The gap, researchers say, can not only hurt kids’ ability to be successful in school. It can also hurt adults’ ability to use the Internet to find a job, get medical information or apply for an affordable home loan — “the kinds of things that help families get by and the kinds of things that help families get ahead,” said Vikki Katz, a co-author of the study.

The findings are out today from the New York-based Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, the creators of Sesame Street.

“We shouldn’t’ be celebrating the conquering of the digital divide because of mobile,” said Katz, an associate professor of communication at Rutgers University.

The problem, the researchers say, isn’t just that many low- and moderate-income families rely on limited, mobile-only Internet access. It’s that many also experience poor service or interruptions: about half say their Internet access is too slow, and one quarter say too many people share the same computer.

Other issues:

One in five families says their Internet has been cut off in the last year due to lack of payment;

nearly 30% say they’ve hit data limits on their plan;

one fifth say too many people share the same phone for them to get needed time on it.

For years, said Victoria Rideout, Katz’s co-author, advocates have held out great hope that mobile devices would bridge the "digital divide." And in some sense, she said, they have. “It’s just a little bit rickety of a bridge.”

She added, “What we’ve learned is that whether or not a family has Internet access is no longer a simple black-white, yes-no type of a question, because all Internet access is not created equal.”

Unlike with previous surveys, in which interest in Internet access varied generationally, she said the new survey shows that families “totally understand the importance of the Internet.” Only about 4% said Internet access is “not important.” In most cases, finances are “what’s keeping them from being as connected as they want to be,” Rideout said.

Homes with broadband Internet hit plateau

The report is based on a nationally-representative phone survey, conducted April 16 through June 29, 2015, of 1,191 low and moderate-income parents of children ages 6 to 13.

Katz said many free and low-cost connectivity programs haven't bridged the under-connection divide. They may sound great on paper, but many are problematic in real life — often they offer slow Internet access, “an Ethernet cord to one device,” and no simple way to add wifi service, she said.

So even families who are interested in these programs decide that a free or low-cost connection simply doesn’t meet their needs.

She and Rideout said they hope the new findings will lead Internet providers to reassess these programs based on the realities families face.

“I think we can do better than this,” Katz said.

The report is available at: www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/