The Nominet Digital Youth Index is an annual benchmarking study of over 4000 eight to 25-year-olds in the UK. It measures young people’s digital access and inclusion, their ability to conduct certain digital skills, how safe they feel online and their related physical and mental wellbeing.
It aims to highlight areas of disadvantage, inform policymaking, and help to improve education and life outcomes for young people today and in the future.
While digital spaces present essential opportunities for young people to learn, connect, work, seek support and socialise, not everyone has an equal chance. This year’s Index discovered a current crisis that is widening the gap between those who can access digital resources and those who can’t.
Cost of living crisis
Two years on from the start of the pandemic, one in four young people still do not have access to a laptop (26%). The key reason among those who do not have a laptop is cost (27%). This is more the case for secondary students (26%) than primary students (19%) and becomes ever-more pressing with the looming cost of living crisis.
Training and skills
A fifth (20%) of young people do not feel they have basic training on digital skills relevant to everyone, let alone the opportunity to explore advanced skills for careers like coding. But more than half (57%) of young people want a job that uses advanced digital skills.
Young people do not feel that they have received good training in school to help them to use digital technology (20%).
Marginalised young people are particularly likely to feel that school training was not enough, this includes LGBTQ+ young people (31%), and those with certain disabilities such as mobility (30%) and mental health challenges (30%). This also applies to those who are not currently in education or employment (34%).
Online access and safety
The findings also revealed the need to balance the benefit of accessing services or connecting with others online, while mitigating the negative impact and risks of spending too much time online. While more than half of young people (53%) say online life has a positive impact on their relationships with friends, more than one in three young people (37%) agree that going online has a negative impact on people like them.
This rises to over two in five among LGBTQ+ young people (44%), and almost half (47%) of young people with a mental health condition. Young people are feeling the impact of social media on people they can relate to, and it is affecting how they feel about themselves.
Social media platforms
The social media platforms where young users are most likely to have seen distressing content are Reddit (70%), Twitter (70%), TikTok (66%), and Tumblr (63%), ranging from violence, to trolling or abuse, and/or sexual content. Additionally, many young people are accessing these platforms at an age lower than is imposed by the social media company. For example, a third of primary school children are accessing TikTok, despite the platform requiring users to be 13.
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Further, new pressures are changing the types of support people need, from money advice to mental health support.
Paul Fletcher, ceo, Nominet, said: “It’s never been more important for young people to feel connected, included and secure when they’re online. Completing this research over a number of years allows us to compare young people’s digital skills, their use of online services, and their mental health and overall wellbeing over time.
“Society depends on young people learning to thrive in our increasingly digital world. Growing the diversity of the UK’s digital talent pool and increasing digital skills for all young people is vital not just for improving social mobility and the economy, but for building the kind of society we need, today and tomorrow.”
Read the full report here for more information and explore the full data through our interactive tool.
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