Digital divide deepens between rich and poor - internet a family's lifeline?; Age, 1/21/16

Miki Perkins, Age; Digital divide deepens between rich and poor - internet a family's lifeline? :

"Travel anywhere in Australia and pretty much everyone has their head buried in a mobile phone.

When they return home, about 90 per cent of households in Australia have internet access.

Broadband is now a basic utility, just like water or electricity, but there are fears the rapid uptake of digital technology is leaving disadvantaged people in its wake.

"This is about having a basic adequate standard of living. If you're not able to get online on a regular basis you now live a completely different and excluded life," says Cassandra Goldie, the head of the Australian Council of Social Services.

The changing digital environment may exacerbate the experience of poverty and the trend towards greater inequality says ACOSS, in a new policy push on the "digital divide", released on Friday.

With government services increasingly online (and not always successfully - Centrelink clients recently missed out on payments because the service's website malfunctioned), people on low incomes have to use the internet frequently."