Youths are now the experts in technology, studies show

WASHINGTON — Need some help navigating the Net? Your best consultant might be a kid.

At school and at home, today's children and teens are so computer-savvy and comfortable online that they've become technology pacesetters, two new government studies show.

About 90 percent of people ages 5 to 17 use computers and 59 percent of them use the Internet — rates that are, in both cases, higher than those of adults. Even kindergartners are becoming more plugged in: One out of four 5-year-olds uses the Internet.

The figures come from a new Education Department analysis of computer and Internet use by children and adolescents in 2001. A second report from the agency, based on 2002 data, shows 99 percent of public schools have Internet access, up from 35 percent eight years ago.

"Children are often the first adopters of a lot of technology," said John Bailey, who oversees educational technology for the department. "They grow up with it. They don't have to adapt to it . . . Students, by and large, are dominating the Internet population."

By the time they're age 10, 60 percent of children use the Internet. That number grows to almost 80 percent for kids who are 16.

"The dramatic increase in younger kids' use of technology is not disconnected from what's going on with their parents and their families," said Peter Grunwald, whose California research firm tracks technology trends by annually surveying students and parents.

"Younger kids are likely to have younger parents, and it is those parents, especially mothers, who have a much higher comfort level with technology than older parents — or even younger parents of five years ago."

A substantial number of children have or plan to have their own Web sites, Grunwald said.

Like adults, young people are going online for a range of reasons, the government research shows. Almost three in four use the Internet for help with school assignments, while more than half use it for writing e-mail, sending instant messages or playing games.

Girls, who not long ago used computers and the Internet at lower rates than boys, have essentially eliminated that difference, the research shows. But there are other gaps.

Almost two-thirds of young white people use the Internet, but less than half of black people ages 5 to 17 do, and slightly more than a third of Hispanic young people log on. Part of the reason is access — 80 percent of black students use computers at school, for example, but only 41 percent do so at home, according to the 2001 report.