News: New report on digital inclusion and young people availible from Carnegie UK

Carnegie UK have published a new research report, Digital Resilience, Inclusion & Wellbeing for Looked after Children & Young People, led by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, undertaken by Snook and supported by the Carnegie UK Trust.

The report explores the digital experiences of a group of young people from across Glasgow in residential settings, to understand how they are accessing the internet, what they are currently using the internet for, and what young people’s needs are from the internet in the place where they live.

The research presents a range of findings relating to digital skills; access; the digital divide; safety and ethics including:

• Digital inequalities exist between young people in and out of care settings, but also persist between residential houses.
• Young people employ a number of methods to access the internet including use of public WIFI (such as buses, fast food outlets or libraries), nearby WIFI (walking around neighbouring streets) and repurposing the available Ethernet cables for other devices.  
• Use of hotspots from personal devices using data can cause power imbalances within residential houses.
• Enterprise grade technology is not suitable for a domestic settings.
• Young people were not opposed to internet monitoring or filtering and suggested restriction measures that they feel should be implemented.

The report also provides recommendations and next steps.