(CNS) - The UN is proposing an e-mail tax in an effort to boost internet

technology access to poor countries in a plan researchers believe will

slow a growing "knowledge gap" between the U.S. and underdeveloped

countries.

According to a report by the UN Development Program entitled

"Globalization With a Human Face", Internet users are largely males in

the US, a situation UN researchers suggest puts undeveloped countries at risk

of being left behind in a race for knowledge.

UN researchers conclude that the Internet has led to a "race to lay

claim to knowledge," in which the "The global gap between the haves and

have-nots, between know and know-nots, is widening." Such circumstances

warrant greater "governance of the Internet" in the form of a "bit tax"

to supply the "needs and concerns of developing countries."

While places such as Bangladesh are behind the United States in terms

of Internet access, UN policy developers are suggesting that Internet

users in the United States be taxed for e-mail usage for what they

determine to be "large" e-mails. To "rectify the imbalance" between

Internet users and non-users, the researchers propose a "tax of one US

cent on every 100 lengthy e-mails" which they believe would generate $70

billion a year.