WASHINGTON-The digital divide between those who do and those who don’t have access to the Internet persists even as the number of Americans connected to the Information Superhighway grows, according to a report released Thursday by President Clinton in Anaheim, Calif.
The report, “Falling Through the Net: A Report on the Telecommunications and Information Technology Gap in America,” also was discussed at a Washington, D.C., press conference.
“America’s digital divide is fast becoming a `racial ravine’,” said Larry Irving, assistant secretary for communications and information and NTIA administrator. Irving said that black Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans have only a one in 10 chance of access to the Internet.
The numbers are just as bleak for children of single-parent households. “Dual-parent white families are nearly twice as likely to have Internet access as single-parent white households. At all income levels, Black Asian and Native American households with two parents are twice as likely to have Internet access as those with one parent; for incomes over $35,000, household type begins to impact Hispanic and White households,” says a fact sheet accompanying the report.
The entire report can be found on the Internet at www.ntia.doc.gov.
