ABSTRACT
The Internet has expanded rapidly since the late 1980s by 50% every year in the 1990s (Paik, 2001). A 1998 survey by the NEC Research Institute estimated that there were 320 million pages of information and entertainment on the Web, and it had increased to 800 million a year later, an increase of 250% in the number of web pages (Lawrence & Giles, 1998,1999, as cited in Paik, 2001), Almost 45% of homes with children from ages 12 to 17 have access to the Internet (Horizon Media Research, 1999, as cited in National Institute on Media and the Family, 2002g), and 17 million youth in the age group use the Internet (Lenhart, Rainie, & Lewis, 2001).
