As the ongoing popularity and availability of high-speed broadband in the UK continues to grow there is a feeling that the employment prospects of children with access to broadband are substantially greater than those without access to the online superhighway. Many are now calling for an expansion of the government’s broadband initiative which has seen a number of low-income families receive free hardware and free access to the Internet to try and balance prospects for the children of today. But will this work?
While the government has pledged to invest hundreds of millions of pounds into the venture there is a feeling that perhaps more investment and education is required in this area. While schools have greater access to broadband connectivity and more and more children are experiencing the benefits of this new technology there is a distinct need to increase awareness and usage in homes across the UK. Unless this balance between the “haves and have-nots” can be reduced, the employment prospects for those children who are not Internet savvy could be severely impacted in the future.
There will come a time when Internet access across the UK is similar to that of the telephone and television but there is a need to substantially reduce the natural lag between lower-income and higher income family take-up of broadband. This will not only benefit individual families and children but the UK economy as a whole.