Issue:

While more affluent peers who have home Internet access can use the Web to get answers to reproductive health questions, low-income teens most often don’t have that resource.

Project:

In Atlanta, low-income teens are being given access to computers with high-speed Internet connections in teen health clinics. Staff from the Jane Fonda Center show teens coming for care how to find health information relevant to their growing bodies and changing feelings.

Result:

Over 2,000 low-income teens have been empowered to get answers independently and privately to personal questions about sex. “I didn’t know that all that was there, ” one teen commented. Another teen exclaimed, “You changed my life!”

Providing this access has opened up a new pathway for low-income teens to learn how to take better care of their reproductive health. Only 30% of sexually-active girls believed that “the Internet is a great way to get information about safer sex” before they had a chance to use the computers -- afterwards, 76% did.

Clinic counseling sessions also have become more focused and helpful because the adolescents have more information.