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Issue: Digital Divide

Digital Divide refers to the disparity between social, ethnic, racial, and economic sectors of society that are fully enabled online versus those which have been systematically neglected by the online revolution.

Here are some resources, including media coverage and links to organizations and related publications about digital divide issues. More general information about other online policy issues is available from the Issues bar at the top of most pages on this website.

Media Coverage

*   Villages Bypass BT for Broadband
Villagers in rural Northamptonshire have won their battle to bring broadband internet to their homes, by setting up their own service, BBC News (September 25, 2003)

*   Microsoft Closes Chatrooms to Curb Paedophile Threat
The software giant Microsoft declared war on internet paedophiles last night by announcing the closure of its thousands of UK-based chatrooms used by millions of people, Independent (September 24, 2003)

*   MSN to Close Chat Rooms
Microsoft says it will drop chat room services in 28 countries next month, in a move it says will ward off pedophiles and junk e-mailers, CNN (September 24, 2003)

*   Spammers, Pedophiles Force Microsoft to Quit Chat
Microsoft Corp. announced on Wednesday it would shut down its Internet chat rooms in 28 countries, saying the forums had become a haven for peddlers of junk e-mail and sex predators, Reuters (September 23, 2003)

*   Vietnam Dissident Sentence Cut
A Vietnamese doctor, accused of spying and using the internet to spread slanders against the government, has had his 13-year sentence reduced to five years, BBC News (August 26, 2003)

Recent Coverage

Organizations and Related Publications

*   Charting and Bridging Digital Divides
Fundamentally, the digital divide is about the gap between individuals and societies that have the resources to participate in the information era and those that do not, University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies via AMD Global Consumer Advisory Board (Adobe PDF) (October 27, 2003)

*   OPG Co-Hosts Bridging the Digital Divides Event
Join us the week of August 25-29 as we discuss "Bridging the Digital Divides, Equal Access to the Internet" on Techsoup's Digital Divide Forum, including topics such as class-based disparity in available technology, the role race, ethnicity, and religion play in the digital divide, women and technology, the impact of Internet blocking software on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, and access to technology for people with disabilities, Online Policy Group (August 25, 2003)
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*   Community Broadband Networks
A blog that publishes daily links to news and comments on community-based broadband initiatives, Community Broadband Networks (August 5, 2003)

*   Hacking for Free Speech
Wholesale Internet censorship now faces a serious challenge with hacker groups such as Hacktivismo are determined to poke holes in firewalls used for repression, FindLaw's Writ (June 24, 2003)

*   Digital Divide in Schools: Student Access to and Use of Computers
Schools appear to play a vital role in bridging a "digital divide" between rural and urban high school students in terms of access to computers and frequency of their use, according to one of the first research papers done under the new Data Research Centre program, Statistics Canada Daily (June 23, 2003)

Recent Publications

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