In a Middle-School Study, Broadband Access Hurt Students’ Grades

The advent of broadband access in middle schools in Portugal led to a decline of 0.78 of a standard deviation in academic grades between 2005 and 2009, say Rodrigo Belo, Pedro Ferreira, and Rahul Telang of Carnegie Mellon University. The reasons are unclear; perhaps broadband access offers students greater distractions. The researchers say they found some evidence that internet use has a significantly greater adverse impact in schools that allow access to YouTube.