Social Inclusion of Australian Children in the Digital Age

This chapter presents evidence on the access to the Internet for Australian children aged 5-15 years at a small area level, based mainly on the 2006 census data. It shows that there are areas of Australia, particularly in regional Australia, that have relatively low proportions of children who have access to the Internet at home. The geographical distribution of these areas is correlated with risk of social exclusion as measured by Child Social Exclusion Index. There was also a positive correlation between the proportion of children in an area with access to the Internet at home and average educational outcomes. The chapter concludes that there is some evidence of a digital divide for Australian children based on location of residence and socio-economic factors, which may have significant implications for children's ability to participate in society both now and in the future, and this requires further research.