Digital Divide Challenges of Children in Low-Income Families: The Case of Shanghai

Abstract

This research article explored the issue of the digital divide in Shanghai with particular attention to children from low-income families. It examined whether a difference in the Internet access of children was associated with their academic and psychosocial attributes. Data were collected from a household survey with a representative sample of 796 low-income and 799 nonlow-income families with children aged 9–17 in Shanghai. Our findings suggest that the digital divide for low-income children in Shanghai is getting smaller or even closing, but the urban–rural divide might be a factor in aggravating digital exclusion. Preliminary group comparisons show that low-income-no-Internet children reported significantly lower scores on all dimensions of digital literacy, academic performance, aspirations, perceived efficacy, self-esteem, family and peer relationships. On the contrary, low-income children with Internet access did not show significant differences with nonlow-income group across all dimensions. While we cannot conclude that there is a direct relationship between Internet access and improved developmental outcomes, the strength of the association suggests that there may be value in efforts being focused on assisting families in the lowest income strata, and on agricultural household registration, to acquire home Internet access.

KEYWORDS:

• digital divide
• internet access
• low-income children
• low-income families
• Shanghai

Notes

Street offices are government outposts in areas of around 100,000 persons.

Mainland China is implementing the One-child Policy. Shanghai is enforcing the policy in a stringent manner; it is most likely that there is only one child in the household. Before the relaxation of One-child Policy in 2014, parents giving birth to an extra baby had to pay a penalty, which amounts to about 2–6 times of the annual salary of both parents.

The Chinese term for the social assistance program in China, officially known as the Minimum Living Standard Guarantee or MLSG program.