• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 6, 2003

2 Million American Children Have Their Own Websites

According to data recently released from "Children, Families and the Internet," a survey by Grunwald Associates, more than 2 million American children ages 6 -17 have their own personal websites. This figure represents fully 10 percent of the 23 million kids who have Internet access from home today -- a threefold increase since 2000.

Four in ten children online from home say they either have or plan to build their own sites. With the majority of kid site planners saying they'll build within the next year or sooner, the researchers project that more than 6 million American children, more than one in four of kids online from home, will have their own personal websites by 2005.

The group of kids who have or plan to build their own personal websites includes:

• 44% of 13-17 year olds
• 32% of 6-8 year olds
• 12.2% of girls online from home have sites today, versus only 8.6% of boys.

Peter Grunwald, President of Grunwald Associates, observes, "Previous generations of kids wrote earnest poetry, or joined rock bands to express themselves. Today's kids do so by building personal websites. And they're hungry for tools to help them build better, more engaging sites..."

When American kids go online from school, the study shows that many children are disappointed in the experience.

76 % of kids with broadband Internet access at home say that their home connection is faster than their school connection.

62% of students with dial-up modem connections from home perceive their home connections to be about the same or faster than their school connections.

Kids 6-17 and their parents are also expressing rising levels of frustration with the amount of time kids are getting online at school.

49% of kids online from home and 34% of their parents say that kids are getting "too little time online" in their schools. This represents a doubling of dissatisfaction on the part of parents of 9-17 year olds and a near-doubling on the part of their children since 2000.

Find out more here.