‘Growing digital divide’ concerns
About 20% of Kiwi adults lack the skills necessary to thrive in modern life
More needs to be done to address the growing digital divide, or those already disadvantaged in society will fall even further behind, according to a report by BNZ.
The bank’s Digital Skills Report estimated 700,000 adults — or 20 per cent — do not have the digital skills
deemed essential for modern life.
People on low incomes, who have lower levels of education or have a disability are less likely to have the digital skills they need to get by, according to the report.
BNZ chief economist Paul Conway said that was a major concern.
“For example, around 30 per cent of people with low levels of education or low incomes are found to lack essential digital skills. For New Zealanders living with a disability, this figure jumps to 42 per cent,” he said.
“By not urgently addressing this digital divide, we face the threat of entrenched inequity as these people become less able to engage with society and the economy.
“This risk will only worsen as the digital transformation picks up pace with more of the economy, social services and our shifting online.”
Access to devices and internet was crucial, and providing lower-cost options for people unable to afford them would help break down a barrier to digital inclusion, Conway said.
However, that would likely require a coordinated response from the Government, the private sector and nongovernment organisations.
The report also found close to 40 per cent of people — or 1.3 million — do not know where to get help to stay safe online.
“The idea here is that we’re finding out what Kiwis can and are not so good at doing online, so we can use that to target digital skills, initiatives
lives
in
general to where they are most needed and cover the topics where New Zealanders are at the weakest levels of digital skills.”
Conway said this survey was the first, which aimed to set a benchmark.
“Our intention is to rerun this work every year so as we work to improve New Zealanders’ digital capability, we’ll be able to track how we are going through future versions of this digital skills survey.”
It was planned to run a survey across small and medium-size enterprises and “there’s talk about doing one across the agriculture sector”.
Conway said more details on BNZ’S work to tackle the problem would be announced soon. —RNZ