As of February 2010, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 72% of Australian households have an internet connection, 66% to broadband.
In the ACT, 74% are connected via broadband, so presumably slightly higher than that have any internet connection at all.
Household Broadband Connectivity Rates by State/Territory (from ABS).
“Ex-metropolitan” households are significantly less likely to have an internet connection, the national ex-metropolitan household connection rate being a bit over 50%.
Australia-wide, having children under 15 increases the household’s chances of being connected to the internet from about 55% to almost 90%, while having a household income of $40K or less decreases the household’s chance of being connected to a bit less than 60% from almost all households if the household’s income is $120K or greater.
Household Characteristics Effect on Internet Connectivity (from ABS)
79% of children aged 5-14 use the internet, 73% at home and 69% at school. 4% of the same group use a mobile phone to access the internet.
So what’s one to make of all this?
Firstly, my ivory tower assumption in my introductory post to this blog that nearly all children have access to the internet is clearly wrong, with over 20% seemingly having little or no access. Given the question behind that assumption was is it really important to give access to the internet in school when they all use it outside school anyway, the answer would seem to be that yes, it is very important.
I also previously alluded to the idea that students generally have ready access to the internet outside of class times, and that this should be enough. I’m now back-pedalling on that idea, for if students don’t have access outside of school, then
- Why should they use time that other students can use socialising for accessing the internet, and
- Given these students are possibly not getting a great deal of guidance in the use of the internet, wouldn’t in-class, supervised access be more effective at teaching them how to use it effectively?
Other take-home points from the statistics are that
- If the student is from a lower socio-economic family they are significantly more likely to have little or no access to the internet (der!), and
- If the student is from a non-metropolitan household, they are significantly less likely to have access to the internet.
rjbarratt 