Adolescents’ use of the internet has exploded in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) alongside the proliferation of digital programming for development. While access is uneven globally—reflecting gender norms, socioeconomic status (SES), geography, and other drivers of inequity—digital technology has a myriad of implications for the opportunities and risks that go along with its use.
Within the pursuit of equity, addressing the gender digital divide is a priority. For instance, a 2023 UNICEF study reports that in 54 countries and territories, only 71 adolescent girls and young women for every 100 adolescent boys and young men use the internet. It is also imperative to ensure that the benefits and opportunities of digital technology outweigh the risks for adolescents in LMICs, so the digital revolution does not exacerbate threats and the vulnerability of girls and adolescents who are marginalized by their ethnicity, disability, poverty, and other factors. Recognizing the vital importance of adolescence as a distinct life stage—with its mental, social, psychological, and physical transitions—underscores the need for evidence-informed approaches that center adolescent voices and perspectives.
For these reasons, the GIRL Center has made it a research priority to expand our work on digital technology and its implications for adolescents.
Safe, empowered use of digital technology is critical
Our multipronged initiative, Safe Empowered Tech for Adolescents (SETA), is building evidence on the use of digital technology among adolescents in LMICs. The need is urgent. Evidence is limited on the gender digital divide in LMICs that takes a life cycle perspective. Evidence from high-income countries has limited relevance where usage and access patterns differ, particularly as they relate to gender norms. For example, mobile phone ownership is low and borrowing devices is the norm for many adolescent girls in LMICs.
A renewed conceptual framework, with adolescents at the center of digital experiences
The GIRL Center has developed a conceptual framework that describes the elements of adolescents’ digital experiences in LMICs based on existing evidence and frameworks. Adolescents are at the core of the framework because research and action on digital technology must center their experiences and perspectives, taking account of age, gender, and SES, to be relevant and effective.
The framework structures the work of the SETA initiative by helping identify evidence gaps, guiding research, and communicating our understanding of the key issues shaping adolescents’ digital opportunities and risks. The framework is a living document that will be updated as research from the GIRL Center and elsewhere generates new evidence. We will integrate young people’s leadership in adapting the framework, creating a research agenda, and filling priority evidence gaps.
Elements of the framework include:
- Individual experiences shape adolescents’ digital risks and opportunities in terms of access, attitudes and skills, and practices. These interactions are influenced by characteristics including age, SES, and gender.
- Community-level influences include social forces that shape individuals, such as household, peers, educators, and—critically—the digital ecology.
- National-level factors influence communities and individuals through technology provision and regulation, education systems, and attitudes, values, and norms. These are relayed through law enforcement, social structures, media, and other formal and informal channels.
We are advocates for research and action on digital technology that adopts an adolescent-centered perspective based on this framework. Our hope is to increase attention to the relatively neglected demand side of digital adolescent programming as the supply of digital resources proliferates. We anticipate that expanded use of the gendered, life cycle perspective will deepen understanding of who is left out of digital programming—especially those who are living in poverty and are marginalized. This knowledge is necessary to overcome access barriers, foster digital literacy, and reduce risks.
Key Reflections
- Research on digital interventions tends to focus on acceptability/feasibility while neglecting questions of access and use.
- Exclusion from digital opportunities in the context of gender inequity may perpetuate cycles of limited education for girls, restricted access to crucial information and resources, and disproportionate risks to adolescent girls.
- Adolescents, especially girls, should be at the core of research and action on digital technology—centering their experiences and perspectives with a life-course perspective.