The digital divide: implications for the eSafety of children and adolescents

The digital divide is the gap between those who are digitally literate and those who are not, between those who do and do not have access to digital environments. The implications of the divide for the eSafety of children and adolescents are the topic of this paper. Three hundred forty-five Israeli children and adolescents participated in this mixed-method study. Safe browsing was found to be affected by the digital divide. Children and adolescents who have digital equipment at home displayed higher eSafety skills and computer literacy than did children who have no digital equipment or those who have only few such devices. Lack or limited access to a digital environment results in absence of eSafety skills and lower computer literacy. As a result, these children are at higher risk of being cyberbullied than are children with access to digital environments and those who have better eSafety skills.

Zilka (2019) found significant and positive correlations between the level of awareness of safe internet browsing and the extent of consumption of digital contents computer literacy level and the number of ITC devices per household. In addition, it was found a significant and positive correlation between the perception of risks associated with revealing personal details and with personal damage, and computer literacy, as well as between the perception of the dangers related to cyberbullying and harassing, and computer literacy. Here, too, it was found that the perception of the dimensions of the danger of internet use is significantly higher when the number of ICT devices in the home is greater.