For many individuals and families, this is not an insignificant investment, especially when they have so many other needs to address financially. The fact that people in the middle range of incomes find costs to be a barrier bodes ill for those below them in the social and economic hierarchy. For low income earners and those who could be classified as poor, the concept of being able to access the Internet and take advantage of all that it has to offer is either just a dream or something that they refuse to consider, simply because the financial burden is too overwhelming. Like their counterparts in the South, the barrier of high costs reveals itself to be a form of economic censorship. Why there are relatively few women using the Internet can be explained by discussing a few key factors.
Men tend to dominate bulletin boards and usenet group conversations.
Such outlets for on-line conversation and expression are often the exclusive domain of men. Many women are, at the very least, apprehensive about entering a domain where the perception still lingers in many quarters that pornography, much of it degrading to women and children, is, if not rife, at least prominent. Women are understandably reluctant to interact in a medium where such perceived hostility exists. More generally, women, by virtue of not being key players in the creation, development and management of the new technology, are distanced from accessing and using the Internet to promote themselves and express their own points of view. While there does not exist a male monopoly of the new technology, it is fair to say that it is close.