Parents on Net vs. TV

That kids watch too much TV is still the view of more parents than that kids spend too much time online. In a just-released study at the University of Southern California, "21% of adult Internet users with children believe the kids are online too long, compared with 11% in 2000. Still, that's less than the 49% who complain their kids watch too much TV," the Associated Press reports. Losing TV-viewing time is also still a more widely used disciplinary measure at 57% (of parents who say they impose it) than losing Internet privileges (47%). I think this is smart, because we're really comparing apples and oranges: TV is a single, very passive medium; the Net is many media and, for youth, far from passive; parents are increasingly getting this. Other key findings:

At least 74% of all Americans under 66 are online (only 38% of people 66+), and 99% of people 18 and under are.

"On average, users spend 14 hours a week online, compared with 9.4 hours in 2000" (when USC first started researching this).

37% of US Net users have dial-up accounts, 50% high-speed ones, and 11% access the Net via mobile devices.

22% of Americans are unconnected, more than a quarter of them former Net users who "dropped out" (mostly because their computer didn't work).