Confidence gap? The impact of gender, class and age on adults' digital literacy

Gendered life patterns and socialisation may negatively affect women's confidence in using digital technology - particularly older women with lower socio-economic status. These are some of the findings from two reports carried out by Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, and the Good Things Foundation, into digital inclusion and literacy. In this post Kate Gilchrist asks what this means for how parents and grandparents support their children in a digital age and argues that policy makers must take such factors into account. Kate is the editor of the Parenting for a Digital Future blog and is a PhD researcher in the Media and Communications department at LSE.