“I think the biggest thing is security, privacy, how do you know who has access to you when you are on the Internet.”
      (Winnipeg, far non-user)

“I like the idea of the Internet, I just wish there was no such thing as hackers. They make it too scary for me.”
      (Winnipeg, near non-users)

“I think the reason I haven’t explored more is that I am scared about sitting there for hours. TV is bad enough.”
      (Winnipeg, near user)

“I think it has taken away from personal relationships. To me it is so impersonal. It may be the way of the world but it is not for me.”
      (Winnipeg, near non-user)

“I have friends whose children are teenagers and they can’t get them off the computer. They’re on MSN. They won’t get off. They don’t do their homework. It’s scary.”
      (Ottawa, near non-user)

“Even with the email. It takes a longer time that you planned. It’s easy to get distracted.”
      (Ottawa, near non-user)

Internet Not Safe

With the media coverage of incidences of computer hacking, identity theft and online credit card and bank fraud, it was not surprising that concern the Internet is not safe was named by some as the reason for not using the Internet. In general, these concerns were vague and compounded by lack of technical knowledge or understanding of the ways users can protect themselves online.

Ill Effects of Internet Usage

At least one or two non-users in each group were quite vocal regarding their concerns of the ill effects of Internet usage. They pointed to Internet addiction and the fact the Internet was causing young people to become more sedentary. While not all agreed that this was a reason not to use the Internet, they did agree that it was a drawback, and that it was easy for children, teenagers and adults alike to spend too much time on the Internet.

Non-users that do not use the Internet because of these types of concerns tended to express an interest in public access to the Internet saying that this way they could control their usage, and complete the task at hand.