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China's Digital Divide

The UNICEF (www.unicef.org) report, "The State of the World's Children," includes a story on the digital divide ["the world has become divided into those who can go online and those who cannot"] and how this impacts children. It refers to the situation in China as an example:

Internet users in China have soared from 620,000 in 1997 to more than 87 million today. However, over 50% of these users reside in China's wealthiest administrative units, while less than one percent of internet users reside in the six poorest units.

Chineses children are active online: Children comprise 20% of all internet users in China; and there are over 2,500 Chinese language chat rooms used predominantly by young people. However, since the internet effectively bypasses the conventional state-controlled mass media, the government is not surprisingly ambivalent about encouraging children to access the Internet. As a result it has banned the operation of Internet cafes within 200 meters of primary and high schools to protect chlildren from "uncensored" information. However, this protectionism promotes the digital divide as an estimated 80% of "netizens" in small and medium-sized cities are only able to access the Internet at these cafes.

UNICEF, on the other hand, argues that...

"with its capacity to improve the quality of teaching and learning, Internet technology can provide China, and its remote communities in particular, with an educational and developmental springboard. Through the Internet children can excercise their rights to self-expression. They can become a global constituency, engaging in active debates on the issues they face and bringing influence to bear on decision makers in their societies."

At the 2005 World Forum in Montreal, the World Forum Foundation will be launching a project to advance the use of technology to promote teaching and learning at a distance. To learn more about this project, go to http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0496

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