In the 1990s, the term "digital divide" emerged to describe technology's haves and have-nots.
It inspired many efforts to get the latest computing tools into the hands of all Americans, particularly low-income families.
But as access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are spending more time than children from more well-off families using their gadgets to watch videos, play games and connect on social networking sites, studies show.
This growing time-wasting gap, researchers say, is more a reflection of the ability of parents to monitor and limit how children use technology than of access to it.
"I'm not anti-technology at home, but it's not a saviour," said Laura Robell, the principal at a public middle school in East Oakland, California, who has long doubted the value of putting a computer in every home without proper oversight.
"So often we have parents come up to us and say, 'I have no idea how to monitor Facebook,'' she said.
The new divide is such a cause of concern for the Federal Communications Commission that it is considering a proposal to spend $200 million to create a digital literacy corps. This group of thousands of trainers would fan out to schools and libraries to teach productive uses of computers for parents and students.
"Digital literacy is so important," said Julius Genachowski, chairman of the commission, adding that bridging the digital divide now also means "giving parents and students the tools and know-how to use technology for education and job-skills training."
FCC officials say they still want to get computing devices into the hands of every American. But "access is not a panacea," said Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft. "Not only does it not solve problems, it mirrors and magnifies existing problems we've been ignoring."
Like other researchers, Boyd said the initial push to close the digital divide did not anticipate how computers would be used for entertainment. "We failed to account for this ahead of the curve," she said.
A study published in 2010 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that children and teenagers whose parents do not have a college degree spent 90 minutes more per day exposed to media than children from higher socioeconomic families. In 1999, the difference was just 16 minutes.
The study found that children of parents who do not have a college degree spend 11.5 hours each day exposed to media from a variety of sources, including television, computer and other gadgets. That is an increase of 4 hours and 40 minutes per day since 1999.
Children of more educated parents, generally understood as a proxy for higher socioeconomic status, also largely use their devices for entertainment. In families in which a parent has a college education or an advanced degree, Kaiser found, children use 10 hours of multimedia a day, a 3.5-hour jump since 1999.
"Despite the educational potential of computers, the reality is that their use for education or meaningful content creation is minuscule compared to their use for pure entertainment," said Vicky Rideout, author of the decade-long Kaiser study.
Policymakers and researchers say the challenges are heightened for parents and children with fewer resources - the very people who were supposed to be helped by closing the digital divide.
The concerns are brought to life in families like those of Markiy Cook, a thoughtful 12-year-old in Oakland who loves technology.
At home, where money is tight, his family has two laptops, an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, and he has his own phone. He uses them mostly for Facebook, YouTube, texting and playing games.
"I stay up all night, until like 7 in the morning," he said, laughing sheepishly. His grades are suffering. His grade-point average is barely over 1.0, putting him at the bottom of his class.
Alejandro Zamora, 13, an eighth-grader, calls himself "a Facebook freak." His mother, Olivia Montesdeoca, said she liked the idea of him using the computer, but did not have much luck getting him to use it for homework.
"He'd have a fit. He'd have a tantrum," she said, adding that she really did not understand some of what he did online. "I have no idea about YouTube. I've never even heard of a webcam."
Many lower-income families take great pains to manage how their children use their devices. In Boston, Amy and Randolph Ross, neither of them a college graduate, recently bought their twin 15-year-old girls laptop computers as a reward for good grades.
The parents make sure the computers are used mostly for homework or for the girls to explore their interest as budding musicians.
"If you just buy the computer and don't guide them on the computer, of course it's going to be misused," Amy Ross said.
It inspired many efforts to get the latest computing tools into the hands of all Americans, particularly low-income families.
But as access to devices has spread, children in poorer families are spending more time than children from more well-off families using their gadgets to watch videos, play games and connect on social networking sites, studies show.
This growing time-wasting gap, researchers say, is more a reflection of the ability of parents to monitor and limit how children use technology than of access to it.
"I'm not anti-technology at home, but it's not a saviour," said Laura Robell, the principal at a public middle school in East Oakland, California, who has long doubted the value of putting a computer in every home without proper oversight.
"So often we have parents come up to us and say, 'I have no idea how to monitor Facebook,'' she said.
The new divide is such a cause of concern for the Federal Communications Commission that it is considering a proposal to spend $200 million to create a digital literacy corps. This group of thousands of trainers would fan out to schools and libraries to teach productive uses of computers for parents and students.
"Digital literacy is so important," said Julius Genachowski, chairman of the commission, adding that bridging the digital divide now also means "giving parents and students the tools and know-how to use technology for education and job-skills training."
FCC officials say they still want to get computing devices into the hands of every American. But "access is not a panacea," said Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft. "Not only does it not solve problems, it mirrors and magnifies existing problems we've been ignoring."
Like other researchers, Boyd said the initial push to close the digital divide did not anticipate how computers would be used for entertainment. "We failed to account for this ahead of the curve," she said.
A study published in 2010 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that children and teenagers whose parents do not have a college degree spent 90 minutes more per day exposed to media than children from higher socioeconomic families. In 1999, the difference was just 16 minutes.
The study found that children of parents who do not have a college degree spend 11.5 hours each day exposed to media from a variety of sources, including television, computer and other gadgets. That is an increase of 4 hours and 40 minutes per day since 1999.
Children of more educated parents, generally understood as a proxy for higher socioeconomic status, also largely use their devices for entertainment. In families in which a parent has a college education or an advanced degree, Kaiser found, children use 10 hours of multimedia a day, a 3.5-hour jump since 1999.
"Despite the educational potential of computers, the reality is that their use for education or meaningful content creation is minuscule compared to their use for pure entertainment," said Vicky Rideout, author of the decade-long Kaiser study.
Policymakers and researchers say the challenges are heightened for parents and children with fewer resources - the very people who were supposed to be helped by closing the digital divide.
The concerns are brought to life in families like those of Markiy Cook, a thoughtful 12-year-old in Oakland who loves technology.
At home, where money is tight, his family has two laptops, an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, and he has his own phone. He uses them mostly for Facebook, YouTube, texting and playing games.
"I stay up all night, until like 7 in the morning," he said, laughing sheepishly. His grades are suffering. His grade-point average is barely over 1.0, putting him at the bottom of his class.
Alejandro Zamora, 13, an eighth-grader, calls himself "a Facebook freak." His mother, Olivia Montesdeoca, said she liked the idea of him using the computer, but did not have much luck getting him to use it for homework.
"He'd have a fit. He'd have a tantrum," she said, adding that she really did not understand some of what he did online. "I have no idea about YouTube. I've never even heard of a webcam."
Many lower-income families take great pains to manage how their children use their devices. In Boston, Amy and Randolph Ross, neither of them a college graduate, recently bought their twin 15-year-old girls laptop computers as a reward for good grades.
The parents make sure the computers are used mostly for homework or for the girls to explore their interest as budding musicians.
"If you just buy the computer and don't guide them on the computer, of course it's going to be misused," Amy Ross said.