Introduction
Information technology (IT) is becoming an increasingly important part of young people’s daily lives across both school and home environments [1]. To illustrate, in 2011 in Australia the internet was used by 79% of school-aged children; with 92% of these children accessing from home and 86% from school [2]. In addition to IT being used by most young people, the use of IT by young people has been linked with academic [3–4] and health outcomes [5–6].
Globally access to computers has not been universal. This has created a ‘digital divide’ between those countries with high rates of access and those with low rates of access. Additionally, even within individual countries with high levels of computer access there is evidence of a ‘digital divide’ between different regions, areas, and neighbourhoods. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) [2] found that households in major cities (75%) were more likely to have Internet access than their regional (64%) or remote (62%) counterparts. Computer and internet access have also been found to be related to socioeconomic status (SES) factors which cluster in neighbourhoods, such as family income, parental level of schooling, and parental job category [2–3,7].
Specifically regarding use of IT by young people, there is evidence of inequitable neighbourhood access to computers within both school and home environments. Access to computers at school is influenced by educational bureaucracies, politics, resource allocation, curriculum development, and school priorities. Students from highly resourced schools have significantly greater access to, and more frequent use of, computers and the internet than students from low resourced schools [8]. At home, young people who live in areas with higher SES factors (such as household income and parental education) were more likely to have been frequent, longer term users of IT than young people from low SES areas [3,5]. These disparities in access can be substantial, with evidence that home internet access can drop from 90% in households in the highest income quintile, to just 40% in households in the lowest income quintile [2].
Governments have recently responded to the inequities in neighbourhood access with policies to equalise school and home access to computers. For example, the Australian government has proposed to equip all secondary students from Years 9–12 with a computer and assist in funding high speed broadband internet services to 98% of all homes [9]. Similarly, in England the government has committed to all children having home computer and internet access for school and college work [10]. These governmental measures have been prompted by research which has highlighted the importance of the nature of computer use for young people’s health and development outcomes. For example, in regard to academic outcomes, Lei [4] found a negative association between entertainment/exploration technology use and student grade point average. In relation to musculoskeletal health and development, prolonged laptop and tablet computer use has been associated with young people reporting musculoskeletal discomfort [11]. Conversely, better school readiness and cognitive development have been observed in children who use a computer for 15–20 minutes every day than in those who do not [12]. Additionally, use of the internet [13] and the use of home computers for educational activities [4] have shown positive relationships with school academic performance.
Despite policy measures being put in place to assist with the inequities of computer access, the influence of neighbourhood may still be evident with IT use. The term ‘digital inequality’ was introduced to extend the digital divide concept to include access to different types of technology, as well as knowledge and skills in technology use, and the capacity of an individual to harness their skill [14]. In countries such as Australia, where there is minimal digital access divide for young people (with near universal school computer access and home computer access), digital inequality may still exist in the nature of computer use [15]. In this way, the digital divide concept may be more broadly understood as a divide in not only if IT is used (access) but also how it is used, as well as subsequent outcomes. How IT is used is likely to be influenced by a range of contextual factors [16] and a complex interplay between technological variables (e.g., access, use, and skill) and sociocultural variables (e.g., demographic, economic, and cultural) [17].
It is argued that the use of IT is embedded in a sociocultural context, such that young people arrive at school with varying access to, and experience with, different technologies [17]. As a result, the relationship between school performance and IT use may be a product of sociocultural context. However, current evidence for a relationship between neighbourhood and the nature of young people’s IT use is limited. Whilst some research has found no correlation between neighbourhood SES related factors and IT use [18], other studies have reported both positive and negative relationships [5,19–20]. The current study sought to explore evidence for a neighbourhood ‘digital divide’ in an environment with almost universal computer access. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of neighbourhood with young people’s exposure to computers and other IT, including the amount and nature of IT use. A better understanding of this issue is seen as critical to developing appropriate policies to ensure adequate economic, academic, and health outcomes for young people.