A free service is available to everybody, so on paper the advantage is equal. In practice what surrounds the tool — a device, a quiet hour, somebody to ask — decides who gets anything from it.
Two students, the same free service, and the four things one of them has.
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| Divide | The question | Why it persists |
|---|---|---|
| First | Do you have access at all? | Cost of devices and connection |
| Second | What can you do with it? | Skills, time, and support |
| Third | What do you get out of it? | Whether it converts into work, money or study |
Why closing the first divide is not enough: Handing out devices closes the first and leaves the other two exactly where they were. That is why programmes measured on devices distributed so often report success while changing very little.
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Real-world examples you can name
School closures and remote learning — 2020–2022
At the peak, UNESCO counted over 1.5 billion learners out of school. Where teaching moved online it kept going for households with a device and a connection and stopped for those without, turning the digital divide into a measurable gap in learning.
Who it affected: School-age children, most sharply those in low-income and rural households.
Platform work and employment status — UK Supreme Court ruling on Uber drivers February 2021; EU platform work directive adopted 2024
Work is allocated by an app rather than a manager. The UK Supreme Court held that Uber drivers are workers entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay, and the EU has since legislated a presumption of employment where a platform controls the work.
Who it affected: Couriers and drivers, and companies whose model assumed self-employment.
The people still offline — ITU Facts and Figures — 2023 estimate
The International Telecommunication Union estimated roughly 2.6 billion people had never used the internet, with the gap concentrated in low-income countries and, within countries, among women, rural populations and older people.
Who it affected: About a third of humanity, who cannot reach services the rest treat as default.
How it compounds
- Getting stuck ends the session for one person and lasts three minutes for another.
- Shared devices mean work happens in fragments, and some tasks are not possible at all.
- No quiet room means concentration is a resource that is not distributed evenly.
- No connection at home means everything has to be planned around somewhere else's opening hours.
How this is tested — “digital divide” is examined constantly and the marks are in naming which divide. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — structured question
- Part c: evaluate a plan to close a digital divide
- Part b: explain why access alone does not produce equality
Paper 2 — source-based question
- Q4: synthesise sources on digital inequality
- HL Paper 3: recommend a measure that reaches the right divide
The trap: access only: A plan that hands out devices addresses the first divide. Say which divide your answer is about and what it leaves untouched.
Explain one reason why equal access to a service does not produce equal benefit.
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Recommend two measures to reduce digital inequality in a school, and justify them.
Model answer plan
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