Digital access is one of the biggest educational challenges facing children in low-income households. Recent initiatives to improve digital inclusion in our country are welcome, but to truly bridge the digital divide, we need a coordinated national approach. This approach should ensure all Australians can engage safely and effectively with the digital world, says The Smith Family CEO Doug Taylor.
I first started working on digital inclusion in 2003. This was before the first iPhone was introduced, before Facebook had taken off, and well before ChatGPT was dominating the public discourse. The internet was steadily becoming more mainstream, but it had yet to weave its way fully into the fabric of our lives as it has today.
Back then, the focus of digital inclusion was primarily on providing hardware and connectivity for those who couldn’t access or afford it. I recall one of the first programs that I helped introduce was setting up internet cafes in public housing estates with the support of a range of businesses. I was also involved in a program connecting up remote indigenous communities and providing hardware repair training so that the program was sustainable.
Reflecting on what’s changed over 20 years, it’s a case of so much – and not much at all. In terms of our digital lives, the last 20 years have been nothing short of transformative with the rapid changes in technology and the rise of social and digital media. Almost every aspect of our daily life has moved online, with the COVID pandemic only accelerating that shift in the last few years.
What hasn’t changed at the same rapid pace is the effort to ensure those who are not digitally included aren’t left behind. Despite the growth of access to mobile technology, the latest Australian Digital Inclusion Index shows nearly one in four Australians today are still digitally excluded. While the index shows the digital divide narrowing, with inclusion increasing to 73.2 points in 2023, up from 71.1 in 2021, the bad news is that many of those who are still missing out are falling further behind.
For example, the gap between those in the highest 20% of household incomes and those in the lowest 20% widened from 26.5 points in 2021 to 28.8 points this year. The gap between those who finished secondary school and those who didn’t is still 32.5 points.
Recent initiatives such as the Federal Government’s School Student Broadband Initiative, offering free NBN to 30,000 eligible families with school-aged children, are welcome. Digital access is one of the biggest educational challenges facing children in low-income households. As families struggle to meet the skyrocketing costs of food, petrol, and housing, it is becoming even harder to afford the devices and home internet children need for learning.
What is needed to really move the dial on digital inclusion in our country is a coordinated national approach. For this, we can look to countries like New Zealand and Singapore, which have already developed a comprehensive national blueprint for digital inclusion with a clear strategy and plans to achieve their ambition.
Working with families on these issues will also be a key focus for The Smith Family as we work towards a five-year goal of ensuring every child on our Learning for Life program – 100,000 students by 2027 – is digitally included.
It is frustrating that two decades after I started my journey in this work, we haven’t made more progress. We still haven’t solved the hardware issues, connectivity is still a problem for many people, and yet the need to be digitally included is greater than ever before. I worry that if we don’t address this issue now, the challenges that lie ahead will become harder to resolve as we face an ongoing tidal wave of change and the complexities compound.
I do take heart in the fact that we’re starting to see a shift in public consciousness. People are starting to realise that digital inclusion is fundamental to be part of our society today – for children at school, for adults at work, and for all of us to live our daily lives. But we must act now to ensure all Australians can engage safely and effectively with the digital world, or run the risk of perpetuating inequality for generations to come.
Doug Taylor is the chief executive of the children’s education charity, The Smith Family.