Digitally Deprived Children in Europe

Sara Ayllón; Halla Holmarsdottir; Samuel Lado

doi:10.1007/s12187-022-10006-w

Digitally Deprived Children in Europe

Child Indic Res. 2023;16(3):1315-1339. doi: 10.1007/s12187-022-10006-w. Epub 2023 Jan 4.

Authors

Sara Ayllón¹, Halla Holmarsdottir², Samuel Lado³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics, EQUALITAS & IZA, University of Girona, Girona, Spain.
² Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.
³ Department of Economics, University of Girona, C/Universitat de Girona 10, 17003 Girona, Spain.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the need for internet connectivity and technological devices across the population, but especially among school-aged children. For a large proportion of pupils, access to a connected computer nowadays makes the difference between being able to keep up with their educational development and falling badly behind. This paper provides a detailed account of the digitally deprived children in Europe, according to the latest available wave of the European Union - Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We find that 5.4% of school-aged children in Europe are digitally deprived and that differences are large across countries. Children that cohabit with low-educated parents, in poverty or in severe material deprivation are those most affected.

Keywords: Computer; Digital deprivation; Education; Europe; Internet; Poverty.