The Digital Divide: Understanding Vulnerability and Risk in Children and Young People’s Everyday Digital Lives

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter aims to uncover what it means to be vulnerable or at risk in relation to digital technology. To better understand risk and vulnerability, there is a need to consider specific kinds of protection, education, and socialisation, all of which are tasks assigned to families and other ecosystems surrounding the digital generation. This chapter provides a first step in contributing to a more precise understanding of the concepts of vulnerability and risk regarding the use of digital technology, laying the foundation for some of the discussions in the remaining chapters of this edited volume. More specifically, the chapter has the following objectives: (1) to understand vulnerability and risk and what it means for children and young people to be vulnerable or at risk regarding digital technologies; and (2) to provide a theoretical contribution to this volume by focusing on vulnerability and risk. One thing that is clear is that risk and vulnerability are partly understood within the digital divide literature and that the importance of the various ecosystems surrounding children and young people’s everyday lives has a crucial role to play.