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Digital skills

Children and young people's digital competence includes both technical and critical skills.

A boy looking at a tablet. Photo.
Photo: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

What are digital skills?

Digital skills refer to two aspects of digital competence: 

  1. The technical skills that children and young people require in order to engage with the Internet and digital media, such as typing skills, content creation skills, or 'push-button' skills.
  2. The critical skills and competencies that are required in order to engage with the range of content that children encounter online. Critical skills include for example the ability to evaluate the trustworthiness of various sources of information or to consider how various online engagements and interactions might compromise safety or privacy.

Digital skills also need to be understood in broader social contexts as they are influenced by and affect the home and family environment, peer relationships, school environment, and broader interactions.

Opportunities to develop digital skills are also influenced by home, family, school, and online environments, which in turn relate to broader policy frameworks.

Our research focus on:

  • How children understand digital media
  • How skills are conceptualized and measured
  • How children develop resilience
  • How a range of digital devices and tools can be used in educational contexts