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Drop it straight into the free Digital Society inquiry frame. The planning sections — your inquiry question, real-world example, sources and plan — are free; unlock the full step-by-step inquiry (impacts & perspectives, analysis through the framework, evaluation and limitations) to take it to the top band.
Start this inquiry in the Digital Society frame →DATA & ALGORITHMS
Algorithmic systems make decisions about real people — perfect for investigating impacts on a specific, documented group.
1 · How does a city's predictive-policing system affect trust between residents and police in the neighbourhoods it targets?
Perspectives come from the police department's policy, residents' and civil-rights groups' reporting, and independent audits of the algorithm — a genuine conflict over fairness, bias and consent to analyse through data and power.
2 · How does a streaming platform's recommendation algorithm shape the music or news a specific group of listeners encounters?
Weigh the platform's design rationale, creators' reach data, and researchers' filter-bubble findings — a clear range of perspectives on how an algorithm steers what people see.
3 · How does an AI hiring-screening tool affect applicants from underrepresented groups at one company?
The vendor's claims, the company's audit, and independent reporting on bias give contrasting perspectives, and the data-and-algorithm content explains exactly how the disparity arises.
AI & AUTOMATION
Generative and automated systems are reshaping specific workplaces and classrooms — ideal for an inquiry into a single documented rollout.
4 · How does a generative-AI writing tool affect academic-integrity practices for students in one school?
Perspectives from the school's policy, students' accounts, and detector-vendor and researcher evidence on false positives let you weigh a real tension over fairness and trust.
5 · How does the deployment of warehouse automation affect the work and wellbeing of employees at one fulfilment centre?
The company's productivity case, workers' and union reporting, and labour researchers' analysis give contrasting perspectives on surveillance, pace and job quality.
6 · How does an AI medical-diagnosis tool affect clinicians and patients in one hospital department?
Vendor validation studies, clinicians' accounts of over- or under-reliance, and independent audits of the model's accuracy weigh a sharp tension over who is accountable for a decision.
SOCIAL MEDIA, NETWORKS & EXPRESSION
Platforms govern what specific communities can say and see — a rich seam of documented, evidenced impacts to investigate.
7 · How does a social platform's content-moderation policy affect a specific creator community's freedom of expression?
The platform's policy, affected creators' testimony, and digital-rights groups' reporting give a genuine conflict over expression, reach and opaque enforcement.
8 · How does an algorithmic feed affect the spread of health misinformation to a specific user group?
Platform transparency reports, fact-checkers' findings, and researchers' amplification studies let you weigh how the system's design, not just bad actors, shapes the harm.
9 · How does an online community's response to a platform change affect its members' sense of identity and belonging?
Members' posts, moderators' statements, and press coverage give contrasting perspectives on ownership, governance and what a digital community owes its users.
10 · How does an influencer-marketing disclosure rule affect young followers of a specific creator?
The regulator's ruling, the creator's defence, and consumer-advocacy commentary weigh transparency, trust and the limits of self-regulation.
Ready to write it up properly?
The Digital Society inquiry frame walks you through every criterion — and the paid unlock guides the impacts, analysis through the framework, evaluation and limitations into one export-ready inquiry document.
Open the Digital Society inquiry frame →DIGITAL DIVIDE, RIGHTS & WELLBEING
Access, surveillance and wellbeing land unevenly on real communities — strong territory for weighing impacts and perspectives.
11 · How does a school district's one-to-one device programme affect students without reliable home internet?
District reports, families' accounts, and equity researchers' data weigh the "homework gap" — a clear, evidenced impact on who benefits from the same technology.
12 · How does a fitness-tracking app's data sharing affect the privacy and wellbeing of its users?
The company's privacy notice, investigative reporting on data brokers, and users' concerns weigh consent, sensitive data and real-world risk.
13 · How does a city's facial-recognition deployment affect the privacy and movement of residents in monitored areas?
Police/agency justification, residents' and civil-liberties reporting, and accuracy audits give contrasting perspectives on safety versus surveillance.
14 · How does a "right to disconnect" or always-on work culture affect employees at one organisation?
The employer's policy, workers' accounts, and occupational-health research weigh how connectivity reshapes the boundary between work and life.
15 · How does a social-media "time well spent" feature affect the screen-time and wellbeing of teenage users?
The platform's design claims, leaked internal research, and independent wellbeing studies weigh whether the feature genuinely shifts behaviour or merely reassures.
DIGITAL TECH IN HEALTH, EDUCATION & WORK
When a digital system enters a hospital, classroom or workplace, the impacts on specific people are concrete and documentable.
16 · How does the rollout of a telehealth service affect access to care for patients in one rural community?
Health-service data, patients' experiences, and researchers' access findings weigh genuine benefit against the connectivity barrier — a balanced, evidenced impact.
17 · How does an AI-proctoring system affect students' privacy and trust in one school or university?
The institution's policy, students' petitions, and digital-rights groups' bias findings give a sharp, well-documented conflict over consent and fairness.
18 · How does a gig-economy platform's rating algorithm affect the income and security of its workers in one city?
Platform policy, drivers' and couriers' accounts, and labour-rights reporting weigh algorithmic management, deactivation and precarity.
19 · How does an e-waste recycling scheme affect the workers and environment of one receiving community?
Exporters' claims, NGO and journalist reporting, and environmental-health studies weigh the global supply chain behind our devices — a strong environmental-context inquiry.
20 · How does a data centre's expansion affect the water and energy use of one local community?
Operator commitments, residents' and council reporting, and independent resource-use analyses weigh the physical footprint of the cloud on one community.
21 · How does a smart-city sensor network affect residents' privacy and participation in one neighbourhood?
Developer plans, residents' and advocacy responses, and governance scholars' analysis weigh who controls urban data and who is consulted.
22 · How does a national digital-ID system affect access to public services for one marginalised group?
Government policy, affected communities' testimony, and researchers' exclusion findings weigh inclusion against the risk of locking people out of services.
23 · How does an educational adaptive-learning platform affect students' learning and data privacy in one classroom?
The vendor's efficacy claims, teachers' and students' accounts, and ed-tech researchers' privacy findings weigh personalised learning against student-data collection.
24 · How does a contact-tracing or health-pass app affect privacy and access for a specific population?
Government rationale, civil-liberties and uptake reporting, and security researchers' audits weigh a genuine tension between collective benefit and individual rights.
From a topic to a top-band inquiry
An idea is the easy part — the marks are in how you investigate it. The Digital Society inquiry project is scored out of 24 across five criteria: A Inquiry focus (/3), B Claims & perspectives (/6), C Analysis & evaluation (/6), D Conclusion (/6) and E Communication (/3) — a ≤1,500-word process document plus a ≤10-minute multimedia presentation, evaluating three contrasting sources. Whichever real-world example you pick, the same moves win: a focused question naming a system, an impact and the people affected; a specific, documented example grounded in referenced sources; the course's concepts, content and contexts used to explain the impacts; more than one perspective weighed fairly; and a balanced evaluation honest about its own limitations.
Build your chosen idea into a full inquiry
The examiner-written Digital Society inquiry frame takes you through every section with the criteria, worked good-and-bad examples and the traps that cost marks. The planning sections are free — unlock impacts & perspectives, analysis, evaluation and limitations to finish the whole inquiry and export it to Word or PDF.
Open the Digital Society inquiry frame →Digital Society IA ideas — FAQ
What makes a good IB Digital Society inquiry topic?
One specific, real, documented example of a digital system's impact on particular people or a community, framed as a focused "How does … affect …?" question that names a system, an impact and the people affected. It must be investigable with a range of referenced sources and let you apply the course's concepts, content and contexts and weigh more than one perspective. Avoid yes/no questions and general arguments about whether technology is "good" or "bad".
What's the difference between a real-world example and a general topic?
A general topic — "AI and privacy", "social media and society" — has no specific people, place or time and can't be evidenced. A real-world example is one named, dated, documented case: a particular city's predictive-policing rollout, one company's AI hiring tool, one district's proctoring software. The inquiry is judged on how well you investigate that single example with referenced sources, so anchoring every idea to a documented case is what separates a top-band inquiry from an opinion essay.
Can I just copy one of these ideas?
Use them as a launchpad, but make the inquiry your own: pick your own documented example, narrow the question to one community, and gather your own referenced sources. That ownership — a specific case and an evidenced range of perspectives — is exactly what the inquiry focus and analysis criteria reward.
How do I use the course's concepts, content and contexts?
Use the framework to explain the impacts of your example, not just label them. Apply the relevant concepts (values and ethics, power, change, identity, systems), content (data, algorithms, AI, networks, media) and contexts (ethical, social, political, economic, cultural, environmental), each tied to a referenced source. Build it section by section in the free Digital Society inquiry frame — question, example and sources, plan, then impacts, analysis, evaluation and limitations.
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