Newsletter

Spring 2010

Many children are in danger of remaining digitally excluded unless more action is taken.
Children living in the poorest households in this country may never fully engage with the digital economy unless action is taken to ensure they have home access to the internet, warns the e-Learning Foundation.

“Time is fast running out to bridge the digital divide in this country, engage parents in their children’s learning and develop the whole family’s IT skills to broaden their horizons and help them out of the poverty trap,” warned Valerie Thompson, Chief Executive of the e-Learning Foundation.

The comment is made in light of a recent Save the Children report (Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK: January 2010P) which found that 4 million children are living in poverty in the UK - with 1.7m children in “severe poverty”, 19% of which refer to children living in London.  The report coincides with the release of the latest National Statistics Office’s Family Spending Survey* that suggests a staggering 2.2 million young people still cannot go online at home and 1.4 million do not have access to a computer at home.

“If more action is not taken many of these children will never engage in the digital economy and will fall further into the digital divide. If digital inclusion is to be supported properly then far wider issues must be addressed in getting disadvantaged families online or we as a nation will pay the consequences with a  large group of computer illiterate young people, unable to interact with society,” added Thompson.

(*  National Statistics Office: Family Spending Survey 2009 Edition; covering 2008)