Background: The advent of internet has triggered a growth in provision of more interactive
health promotion messages, which are likely to enhance the potential for behavior change
especially among children. We intended to find out the determinants and prevalence of use
of internet among school students of Puducherry. Materials and Methods: An exploratory
study was carried out among all the students belonging to the standards VI to IX (n = 421) in
three schools from urban areas and two schools from rural areas of Puducherry. A pretested,
self-administered questionnaire which sought information on sociodemographic details (age,
gender, standard of education, occupation of father, and type of school), use of internet, and
place of accessing internet, hours of use, and reasons for use was utilized. The statistical
significance between the categorical variables was done using chi-square test. All significance
tests were two-tailed and statistical significance was defined as a value of P < 0.05. Results:
Majority (72.2%) were boys. Less than one-third (23.8%) of the students used internet. The
use of internet was found to be significantly higher in mid-adolescents (Adjusted OR: 2.205);
among boys (Adjusted OR: 3.835) and students from urban areas (Adjusted OR: 4.694).
Conclusion: There is a geographical and gender divide observed among the school children
in the use of internet. Taking the steps to bridging the digital divide will help utilize internet as
a media for health promotion.