Carrot and Stick Approach Necessary to Tackle Digital Exclusion
Martha Lane-Fox this week published the Race Online 2012 Manifesto for a Networked Nation(1). It’s a report with a large number of recommendations to inspire, encourage and support individuals to go online.
Martha makes a compelling case as to why we should all be online: The internet benefits us as consumers; helps us gain employment opportunities; gives us opportunities to learn; and can increase government efficiency.
The report attracted some good media coverage so I don’t intend to summarise the report. But I do want to focus on one recommendation in particular. As part of the Manifesto there is a call for Government to “expect people of working age to use some key online services”. Whilst the recommendation is focussed on people of working age it is an issue I have often debated in relation to older people.
A degree of compulsion is not a new thing. Some Government departments have already moved activities exclusively online and there is a degree of inevitability (not just due to budget pressures) that this trend will continue. The DTI (now BIS) were criticised a few years ago for moving employment rights information exclusively online, for example. And the Governments recent call for public sector workers to identify savings (Spending Challenge) appears to be an exclusively online consultation (2). In the private sector there are a large number of services exclusively online.
But the recommendation by Race Online 2012 is in my view, not one which should be ignored for the older population. Over the last 10 years we have seen fantastic services which aim to inspire, encourage and support individuals to go online. But it is clear that these services barely scrape the surface of the problem. Progress towards digital inclusion for older people has been painfully slow.
Perhaps it is time to ask very difficult questions if we are to tackle digital exclusion. If we want older people to get online yes we have to inspire, encourage and support. But we may also need to use the stick as well as the carrot. Perhaps Government should expect older people to, for example, apply for their bus pass online. The bus pass has fantastic value (in London it is worth thousands of pounds a year) and perhaps this would nudge people towards the new technology.
With around six in ten over 65s having never used the internet, these are not small problems. And don’t be convinced that this problem will go away in the short run (many of today’s seventy year old non-users will still be with us in twenty years time). I understand that Race Online 2012 are working on a follow up paper specifically looking at older people. It is important that the paper is bold and brave.
David Sinclair
(1) http://raceonline2012.org/
(2) http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/