• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 29, 2002

Internet Use by Parents, Non-Parents, Mothers and Fathers

Non-parents are not really non parents, they just don't have minor children living at home. That said, the Pew Internet & American Life Project 2 outlines some of the differences in Internet use between parents and non-parents, single parents and married parents, parents of younger children and parents of older children, and mothers and fathers.

Pew has consistently found that parents with children under 18 are more likely to have used the Internet than non-parents. In the October 7-27 survey, 70% of the U.S. parents with a child under age 18 use the Internet, compared to 53% of non-parents. That means there are almost 45 million online parents in the United States today, and they make up 43% of all U.S. Internet users.

The survey showed that parents are generally more enthusiastic about technology and less burdened by technological change than non-parents. Parents, whether they use the Internet or not, are more apt than non-parents to say they like all the information that is available today from all kinds of media.

In a September survey, Pew found that 54% of the parents with Internet access were online on an average day, compared with 60% of the non-parents who have Internet access. Parents also go online less frequently than non-parents. In September, 44% of the connected parents said they went online at least once a day from home, compared to 53% of non-parents who have Internet access at home.

And in the Pew Internet & American Life Project 3 they found that parents are more likely to access health, lifestyle-enhancing, and religious information Online. Parents are more likely than non-parents to look at several sites during their searches, but they are less vigilant than non-parents in checking the source and sponsorship of the information.

Some of the other ways parents’ online behavior differs from non-parents: - Online parents are more likely than wired non-parents to do research for school or training or research for their jobs.

Parents are more likely than non-parents to participate in online banking.

Parents are more likely than non-parents to use the Internet to contact a local community group or association, a support group, or a religious organization.

Parents are more likely than non-parents to say the Internet played a role in their finding a new place to live, dealing with a medical condition (their own or a loved one’s), and starting a hobby. A family helper for some

The March-May 2002 survey showed that 58% of single parents use the Internet, compared with 71% of married parents. About 6.5 million single parents in the United States go online; about 4 million of these are single mothers.