## 4 Narrowing the Digital Divide? Or, It Is Expensive to Be Poor  
As outlined above, just 27% of teens interviewed in 2009 reported accessing the internet through their mobile phones. This figure jumps to 41% of teens when considering only teens from households earning less than $30,000 annually. Just 70% of teens in this group had computers in the home, compared to 92% from families earning more than $30,000 per year. This disparity is even greater when we compare this group to teens from families making more than $75,000; as of 2009, 97% of whom had a computer at home and 23% of whom reported using their phones to go online. Mobile internet access was also higher among minority teens that are less likely than white teens to have a computer in the home, with 44% of African American teens and 35% of Hispanic teens using their phones to go online. This finding is echoed by a 2010 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, which found that mobile phone owners regardless of age, 51% of African Americans and 40% of Latinos access the internet on their phone, compared to 34% of whites [23]. Further, overall, 21% of teens who could not otherwise access the internet did so with their mobile phones. These surprising trends suggest a means of narrowing the digital divide.  
American teens from lower income households and minority teens are less likely to have a computer in the home but more likely to access the internet using mobile devices compared to teens from higher income households. Similarly, the 2010 Pew Hispanic Center study found that where 65% of white Americans had home broadband access, just 52% of blacks and 45% of Latinos had this same access. This, therefore, suggests a narrowing of the digital, but not necessarily the equipment, divide. Cost is the key prohibitive factor preventing teens from using their mobile phones to access the internet. Yet, lower income teens are _more_ likely to use their phones to go online. This therefore presents a paradox: At face value, it seems counterintuitive that those with the least money are spending the most to go online. Here we consider the mechanisms underlying this observation.  
By looking at the type of plan and who pays for it, this paradox can be at least partially explained. First, teens from higher income households are more likely to be on family plans paid for by someone else. Considering those who own mobile phones, 65% of teens from households earning more than $75,000 per year are on family plans with someone else (_i.e._, a parent) paying the bill. In contrast, just 31% of teens from households earning under $30,000 per year are on a family plan paid for by someone else, with 23% paying for their own entirely (in contrast to only 4% of those from the high income group). Paying for their own phones, as well as having their own contract, is associated with using more of the service's features, especially those that require internet access, e.g., email, instant message, sharing pictures and videos, accessing social networking sites, and making online purchases. In 2009, 40% of teens in the study who paid their entire mobile phone bill used their phones to access the internet, compared to 23% of teens who paid part of their bill and 26% who paid none. One teen's overview of his personal plan highlights this emphasis on features: \"I pay for my own. I have a sidekick plan...which is unlimited texts, Web browsing, email and all that. And I have about 800 min.\" Similarly, among black and Latino teens with household incomes less than $30,000, 63% paid for some or all of their mobile phone use, compared to 29% of teens in general. Forty-four percent of black teens and 35% of Latino teens with mobile phones use them to access the internet, compared to 21% of white teens. Thus, teens from lower income families and minority teens are more likely to pay for their own mobile devices and, given that teens who pay for their own phones are more likely to go online, are more likely to use their phones to go online.