A Framework for Assessing Internet Development

The Internet has developed rapidly into a communications medium which continues to transform access
to information, opportunities for expression, and many aspects of government and business for people
around the world. It has become a global marketplace for ideas, goods and services. It has both facilitated
the enjoyment of human rights and raised new risks. Among the challenges that need to be addressed if the
benefits of the Internet are to be universally available, are digital divides between developed, developing
and least developed countries, between urban and rural areas within countries, between people with higher
and lower incomes and higher and lower levels of educational experience and attainment, and between
women and men. Opportunities and risks will continue to become more complex, more powerful and more
influential on the future as a result of the Internet’s technology, services and markets are in constant change.