European Commission Report Suggests 33% of Population Has Never Been Online
According to the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, governments across Europe need to adopt policies that are capable of overcoming present hurdles and ensure better coordination for promoting growth of the digital economy in Europe. This, she said, would ensure sustainable development and create jobs across all sectors.
Reding’s comments came after a report by the European Commission disclosed that one in three people in Europe has never used the internet. As most of us cannot imagine a life without going online for shopping or internet banking or accessing social networking sites, it seems quite unbelievable that every one in three persons in Europe has never been online. This seems even stranger since mobile broadband services allow people to access the internet at any time of the day with availability on contract or ease of pay as you go mobile broadband from anywhere they want.
However alarming this report may sound, it must be noted that most of the internet-deprived individuals are either elderly people who do not use the internet voluntarily, or ones who do not have sufficient economic resources to do so. Their numbers have also seen a decrease from last year, when people not surfing the internet comprised 40% of the total population.
It was also reported that one of the least affected sectors in the times of recession is the Information Technology sector, which some argue has the potential to salvage the European economy.
