One in three without easy internet access
Over 4 million children, over 35% of the UK total, still do not have easy internet access. Unless they leave the house, they can’t do their homework properly, they can’t join in the social world of their peers, and they can’t gain the internet skills and knowledge they will need to live comfortably as adults according to the latest analysis from Point Topic.
“We think this is much the largest ‘digital divide’ facing policy-makers in Britain at this election. This social gap has appeared not because broadband is unavailable but rather because families have not chosen to buy it, whether for reasons of cost or otherwise. It is far bigger in its effects than the geographical divide,” says Tim Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic.
Only an estimated 40,000 families with children live in areas beyond the reach of fixed broadband services. Another 1.4 million live in areas where broadband is available but slow, with reliable speeds below 2 megabits per second (2Mbps). More than half of these still find it worthwhile to buy broadband, even if its performance is unsatisfactory. About 6 million families live in areas with reasonably good broadband and two-thirds of them do subscribe to it. This leaves a total of 2.7 million families, home to 4 million children, without good quality internet access at home.
On average, these 4 million children will have lower earning power and will create increased social costs through their lifetime compared with their peers who do have good internet access. If the losses average as much as £500 per year over a 40-year working life then the total cost to the UK will be £80 billion. The reason for taking this issue seriously is clear.
Deprivation by constituency
To highlight the policy issue, Point Topic has calculated how digital deprivation works out at for each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies in the UK.
“We estimate that 302 of the 650 constituencies in the UK have over 40% of households with children who are digitally deprived, even though they are in areas where broadband is available,” says Johnson.
The areas with the very greatest digital deprivation are not working class city-centre territory as Point Topic initially expected. Instead we see the highest figures for families without broadband in the less prosperous country constituencies such as Derbyshire Dales, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Sedgefield in Durham.
“City centre constituencies do not make much appearance in the lists of the most deprived constituencies, although places such as Dundee, Manchester, Doncaster and Glasgow are quite high. It is the industrial, or post-industrial, countryside which often shows the highest levels of digital deprivation, including constituencies such as North-East Derbyshire, Aldridge-Brownhills, and the valleys of South Wales,” says Johnson
Will current programmes survive?
In fact, although it has not seen much publicity, the current Government has set up quite a comprehensive programme to tackle the digitally excluded. A National Digital Participation plan aims to get online 60% of the 12.5 million people that are currently offline by March 2014, and brings together various initiatives. Most conspicuously, Martha Lane Fox, the former internet entrepreneur, is heading the “Race Online” initiative, aiming to get as many people as possible online by the time of the London Olympics in 2012. More low profile is the Home Access Scheme which aims to help low income families – particularly those with children – to get online at home.
The other parties have had little to say about this issue in their manifestos and other utterances, but hopefully this means that they would continue what the current government is doing. The Conservative Manifesto claims to outline “the most ambitious technology agenda ever proposed by a British political party”. Its plans for superfast broadband are prominent, as part of their aim to boost British business and create highly paid new jobs across the country.
“A programme to reach the one child in every three who is missing out on the internet will need to be a key part of any parties policy,” says Johnson.
