Problematic Uses of the Internet: Empirical Evidence of the Third-level Digital Divide in France (Usages problématiques d’Internet : un état des lieux de la fracture numérique de troisième niveau en France)

Abstract

The public policy of support to digital uses is implicitly based on the reduction of first and second level digital divides. First by facilitating access (equipment and infrastructure) and then by worrying about usage or non-usage. Even if illiteracy remains important in France, education to uses is today a privileged axis by public authorities. We test the existence of a new digital divide, which we call the third level, and which concerns the problematic uses of the Internet observed on a representative sample of the French population in 2020. 10 to 14% of our sample is concerned and this reveals a strong entanglement between a user and the uses but also ambivalent effects on mental health, social and professional life. This third divide calls for a rethinking of public policy to ensure sober and moderate use and the development of a more virtuous digital economic model oriented towards "well-being by design".

Keywords: internet, mental health, digital divide, public policy

JEL Classification: o38, i14,