Insights from impacts of the digital divide on children in five majority world countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Law, Effie Lai-Chong; Vostanis, Panos; O’Reilly, Michelle J.

doi:10.1080/0144929x.2022.2141136

Insights from impacts of the digital divide on children in five majority world countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Law, Effie Lai-Chong; Vostanis, Panos; O’Reilly, Michelle J.

Authors

Professor Effie Law lai-chong.law@durham.ac.uk
Professor in Computer Science

Panos Vostanis

Michelle J. O’Reilly

Abstract

The digital divide is especially pertinent in Majority World Countries (MWCs), and this was exacerbated greatly by the pandemic. Tackling the digital divide underpins the work of Human–Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D) and remains an important global endeavour. Our project aimed to understand how children and young people (CYP) in MWC coped during the pandemic and how technology played a role. Voices of CYP were complemented by those of their parents and professionals with whom CYP interacted regularly. Our empirical study involved 73 CYP and 76 adults from Brazil, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey. Qualitative data from diaries, drawings and focus groups were analysed thematically. Four major themes were identified – ‘access’, ‘usage’, ‘risk’, and ‘future Among others, some intriguing findings were that CYP acutely felt the peer pressure on ICT ownership and tended to direct frustration at parents, who grappled with their untenable roles as gatekeepers to digital worlds. Implications for addressing the digital divide include long-term strategies to improve infrastructures and mobilise community-based collaborative efforts and enhance digital literacy.

Citation

Law, E. L., Vostanis, P., & O’Reilly, M. J. (2023). Insights from impacts of the digital divide on children in five majority world countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Behaviour and Information Technology, https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2022.2141136

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 19, 2022
Online Publication Date	Nov 3, 2022
Publication Date	2023
Deposit Date	Oct 31, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jan 18, 2023
Journal	Behaviour and Information Technology
Print ISSN	0144-929X
Electronic ISSN	1362-3001
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2022.2141136

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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.