Digital inequalities in children and young people: A technological matter?

Abstract

In spite of recent attempts to build a new Sociology of childhood, the study of the relationship between childhood and technology, including the most recent ideas regarding the internet, has long been dominated by deterministic -and in some cases even simplistic- theories. However, in order to rigorously study this relationship, it is necessary to assume an approach capable of incorporating the complexity of the social construction that such a relationship involves. Therefore, and with empirical studies at hand, we might be able to move beyond the old debates and begin to understand the current and future consequences resulting from the unequal appropriation of technology by children and young people. Indeed, this is our main objective: to show how this process occurs in the case of the internet -the information network characteristic of the Network Society. Paying a special attention to socio-demographic characteristics, academic performance, family influence, and school contribution, we analyze inequalities in internet access, use and digital literacy with respect to 6,602 children and young people from a statistical representative sample of 350 schools and high schools from Catalunya (Spain).