According to a UK study, students, especially teenagers who do not have access to the Internet at home suffer an educational disadvantage and this affects them academically.
The study was conducted on over 1,000 students selected randomly from 2008 to 2011. More than 200 students along with their family went through face to face interviews. The Oxford University's Department of Education study found that one of the top reasons some households not having the Internet in their homes was because parents were anxious their children would spend more time on the web site than studies. While researchers found that this could be a valid reason, they also stated the absence of the Internet at home does come with some disadvantages.
According to the study, researchers found children belonging to such homes feel that they are "educationally disadvantaged." Most of these children also belonged to poor households. The children also felt that without Internet access in their homes, they were left out of their peer group socially and also suffered academically as most of their homework and projects required online research.
"While it's difficult to state a precise figure for teenagers without access to the Internet at home, the fact remains that in the UK, there is something like 300,000 young people who do not -- and that's a significant number," said researcher Dr. Rebecca Eynon, according to Science Daily. "Behind the statistics, our qualitative research shows that these disconnected young people are clearly missing out both educationally and socially."
"We get coursework now in Year 9 to see what groups we're going to go in Year 10," said a 14-year-old boy who was interviewed during the study. "And people with Internet, they can get higher marks because they can like research on the Internet...my friends are probably on it [MSN] all the day every day. And like they talk about it in school, what happened on MSN."
Another 15-year-old teenager revealed her frustration for not having the Internet in her home because it affected her work.
"It was bell gone and I have a lot of things that I could write and I was angry that I haven't got a computer because I might finish it at home when I've got lots of time to do it," she said. "But because when I'm at school I need to do it very fast."
