S2 Ep11: Fighting Digital Poverty with Paul Finnis from Digital Poverty Alliance

Published: Aug. 4, 2022, 9:37 a.m.

In this week's episode, Paul Finnis, CEO of the Learning Foundation and Digital Poverty Alliance, lets us in on his inspiring work, helping children achieve their full potential through the effective use of technology, with an ultimate goal to end digital poverty by 2030.
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\n"We kept finding enormous numbers of young people who were not connected at home at all or have limited connectivity," he explains. "Digital should fit into people's lives, particularly the most disadvantaged, and not be an additional burden."\xa0
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\nPaul gives us further insight into the real-life impact of digital poverty, causing many children and young people to remain at school without having their ambitions and their potential fully realised.
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\nWe discuss how with each new development in technology, more people are left behind, worsening the existing inequities around race, gender, age, ability, and income.
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\nFurther conversation leads us into the role of the pandemic in intensifying the UK's digital divide; now, only 51% of households earning between \xa36,000-10,000 have home internet access compared with 99% of households with an income of over \xa340,001. The link between poverty and digital exclusion is obvious. In this context, Paul emphasises that providing access to a device alone cannot end digital exclusion.\xa0
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\nAs the podcast heads home, we learn a bit about Paul himself \u2014 the one tech product that has been a game-changer for him, and his idea of one problem tech can't solve (and why).
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\nTo learn more about Paul's work at the Learning foundation and Digital Poverty Alliance, visit: https://learningfoundation.org.uk and \xa0https://digitalpovertyalliance.org
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