Dr. Alice Mathers:

Senator Ruane's range of questions are really critical at this time. I wanted to focus on a number of them. Who is most vulnerable and therefore what really works for them? What we have found through our work is that within communities where one does not have a lot of external influence, there has been an ever-decreasing amount of public and community support and a lack of employment opportunities.

There is a cycle of peer influence that goes on. I referred to the point of people deciding this is not for them because there is a real problem with younger people who come up through those communities and do not see people using digital technologies in a broad way to affect different areas of their lives. Through our work, one of the things we increasingly see is this idea of people who only use social media. People who have a smartphone will use a small amount of the apps that are already installed on the phone and they do not have the literacy or media literacy skills to do much more beyond that. Therefore, one of the most effective measures with that issue is peer influence. Working with community leaders and organisations that people trust is really critical in communities where people feel they have had a raw deal for a long time. The idea of external influences coming in and telling people what to do and how to do it is not an effective model. Online centres in the UK as a model always come out of a community need first and foremost, be that a lack of employment, poor mental health or the focus on loneliness and isolation and it is because digital technologies can be a solution to all those things that we see community organisations as being one of the most powerful routes to change.