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The digital divide in France - Policy Brief 218

The digital divide in France - Policy Brief 218

18/04/11

The digital divide in France (April 2011) *

Contents

  •   Not one but three digital divides
  •   The school faces major challenges
  •   Reduce the digital divide: the social conditions of treatment in France

Access to networks and digital technologies has become one of the conditions for integration in our society. Geographical deployment of a broadband network, which should allow access to all not enough, however, if citizens do not try to connect to it, or do not exploit the potential. But the France of this view is late: approximately one third of the population does not have a computer and not use the Internet.
This divide is not one but three digital divides, for possession of tools but also to their use: a generation gap, leaving the elderly in the margin of new technologies; a social gap, which excludes the poor, and a cultural divide that deprives the lowest educational opportunities in computer.

Network access of poor households can be achieved by lowering costs and making available, in various forms of connected computers. The integration of older people in the digital society, allowing them to stay longer at home and correspond with their families, requires an appropriate accompaniment. The situation is more critical for those among the younger generation, are clear of these technologies and who may suffer from this disability throughout their lives. The school, including the strengthening of personal assistance, is obviously the heart of solutions that can be implemented. Only by addressing these challenges that we can enter fully into the digital society and have the skills necessary for the competitiveness of our companies.
 

  •   Authors: Dominique Auverlot , Joel Hamelin , Eugenia Lejeune , Jean-Loup Rent and Laurence River , Sustainable Development Department of the Center for Strategic Analysis. With the collaboration for the analysis of the international consulting firm BearingPoint.

Press contact:

Jean-Michel Roullé
Communications Manager
jean-michel.roulle@strategie.gouv.fr

Tel.
01 42 75 61 37 - 06 46 55 38 38

 

(*) Center for Strategic Analysis (2011), The Digital Divide in France, Government Report to Parliament established under Article 25 of Law No. 200

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