Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: interim report

5 MDLS and Scottish households’ needs

Across the three focus groups with Scottish households, parents and young people agreed with the UK MDLS contents and did not significantly change the range of goods, services, and skills included. However, conducting groups with people from different regions of Scotland highlighted some nuance to households’ digital needs, the significance of digital inclusion in a rural or urban context, and issues that could inhibit a person or household from reaching MDLS, particularly infrastructure. The digital goods, services, and skills are presented below, highlighting the aspects remarked as important to Scottish households with children. The key contents are summarised in bullets at the start of each section.

5.1 Digital goods and services

5.1.1 Mobile phones, laptops, and tablets: Necessary tools for everyday life

• An entry-level smartphone for each parent and for each child who is socialising and travelling independently.
• Plus, an entry-level “large screen device” such as a laptop or tablet per household – parent(s) and first child share one device.
• Plus, another “large screen device” for every additional school age child in the household.

Groups agreed that parents and older children needed a smartphone. We asked groups when a school child would need their own phone. Parents and young people felt that the answer to this depended on when a child began going out independently, for example, meeting friends in the streets near home or making their own way to school. Groups suggested this could be between ages 9 and 11, depending on a family’s circumstances. The phone was identified as an important aspect of this independence, allowing young people and parents to contact each other, with parents, in particular, noting that the ability to track each other’s locations on a smartphone provided reassurance and “peace of mind”. Parents living in rural areas indicated that children may have to travel some distance even to primary school, perhaps on a school bus on their own, which could influence when they might have a phone. In such situations, parents emphasised the increased importance of children being able to contact them, given the implications of missing a bus or having it cancelled in bad weather. With more independence as they get older, children would need a phone to access apps, QR codes, and cashless payments, for instance, for travel, school organisation, and homework, as well as accessing social media and keeping in touch with friends.

“Researcher: When do you think it becomes important, then, [to have] your own device with its own data?

Girl 1: I would say nine, 10.

Girl 2: I would say nine, 10, yes.

Researcher: So, what is that about? Why is that?

Girl 2: Well, when I was nine and 10, like, I was allowed to go out on my street so instead of mum and dad having to go and get me, it would be so they could phone me.

Girl 1: Yes, because if you go out your mum can always like, your mum or your dad can always put like a tracker on your phone when you’re younger and then they can always like find out where you are.”

(Young person group, urban Scotland)

“Woman: We live a little bit away from my son’s academy, so he has to get public transport, so he does need to take his mobile because he has got that app on it so he can work out his buses to and from school. A lot of schools now [use a lot of] technology so they have got an app, you can check what is in the canteen daily and obviously we have to top it up, so he can check when it is running out of funds.”

(Parents group, rural Scotland)

Additionally, groups said that any household with children needed at least one other large-screen device, such as a laptop or tablet. Groups agreed that it was acceptable for parents and one school-age child to share a large screen device with each other, as well as with very young children in the household. However, the household would need another equivalent device for every additional school-age child. Groups said that having the extra functionality of a laptop or tablet, as well as a smartphone, was an important combination for everyday life necessitated by rapid digitalisation since the COVID-19 pandemic. The larger screen on a laptop or tablet was seen as more suitable for children to use for homework or parents filling in forms online, for example. A few parents said their children had been given individual iPads through their school; however, there was recognition of uneven provision across Scotland.

5.1.2 Equipment for media and gaming: Opportunities for information, entertainment and social participation

• A television per household, access to a streaming television service, and a television license.
• Plus, access to gaming via an entry-level subscription or other means for school-age children.
• Plus, a set of headphones for each school-age child.

People said that television remained a valuable source of information and entertainment, allowing the family to watch the news, programmes, and movies together or with friends. They felt that accessing the same television content as others fulfilled a social and cultural need, and therefore, families with children needed to be able to access streaming services. Groups agreed that this need could be met with a mix of free streaming apps, a basic paid subscription service, and a television license to watch live programmes and the news.

Groups said that people of all ages may want to access gaming, and they said that gaming could provide opportunities for educational and skills development and entertainment. They noted that younger school-age children may benefit from mobile or tablet games with supervision. People agreed that online gaming could be an important form of social inclusion for some older school-age children. However, this came with the caveat that gaming online with others involved risks requiring critical digital skills to assess and mitigate these. Groups agreed that each school-age child should be able to have a set of headphones for listening to music, creating some privacy or managing background noise when doing homework.

5.1.3 Broadband and phone data: Vital services for connectivity

• Reliable home broadband with sufficient speed to support multiple family members accessing the internet at the same time.
• Plus, mobile data for every family member with a smartphone. 5GB of data per month could meet the needs of families living in urban areas, while those living in rural areas would need at least 10GB of data per month.

As with digital devices, connection to the internet was described as something “you can’t live without” (Parents group, urban Scotland). Getting online instantly and having access to adequate and reliable broadband and data connections was paramount for digital inclusion. Groups said, for example, that households should not have to worry about running out of data or unpredictable broadband that loses connection. They agreed that households with children would need a combination of home broadband and phone data to always ensure a minimum acceptable level of connectivity.

Broadband was an essential part of family life and necessary for accessing entertainment and information, communicating and interacting with others, and accessing services, work, and education. Groups said that a household with children would require broadband with sufficient speed and reliability to enable all family members to use the internet simultaneously without worrying about the impact on connection quality. The broadband speed required would depend on the household size and how they were using it. The MDLS groups stated that the technologies that home broadband could need to simultaneously support included online gaming, media streaming, video calls, online messaging, and internet browsing.

Connectivity issues were identified as a significant issue affecting households. People living in rural parts of Scotland were described as especially disadvantaged by poor infrastructure. Participants discussed how unreliable broadband provision, even sometimes despite paying for a faster connection and/or equipment to try to improve coverage, meant being unable to get an adequate connection and having to rely on using mobile data in the home instead. This has implications for the level of mobile data that households require, as families in rural, as well as other areas and situations, who lack a stable home broadband connection will need more mobile data.

Groups agreed with the UK MDLS model for households living in urban areas that, alongside stable home broadband, any family member with a smartphone would need a minimum level of phone data. Groups in Scotland, as with other parts of the UK, found it difficult to decide on precise amounts of data, but they agreed in principle that all urban areas of the UK would need a similar amount. For the UK, MDLS groups felt that 5GB of data was a reasonable amount per month. However, they said that households living in more rural and remote parts of Scotland would need more data. They felt that an extra 5GB per month for each family member with a smartphone could be a way to meet additional needs, such as for longer journeys to shops, school and work, while also having fewer opportunities to connect to public Wi-Fi. Mobile phone data was especially important for children travelling long distances independently to school.

“Woman 1: [Our daughter] goes to school quite far away from where we live, so WhatsApp has been key in making sure she gets where she needs to and…here, buses get cancelled so often, like I have never known anything like it. So, her being able to get in touch with us really quickly and easily it is like it has been really reassuring.

Man: …From my own experience having to bus to and from school from a great distance erm… it is different story if you can walk home, you don’t have a phone you know you have still got that ability to get home. If you’re more rural and you’re 10, 12, 15 miles away your options are very limited for [getting] home…

Woman 2: For us, the weather is a massive thing. We live rurally, there is transport not running when there is snow…and I would never want my children to be out without access to a phone and some data.”

(Parents group, rural Scotland)

While the included data would meet the different needs described, people would likely need to prioritise how they used it. Groups said monitoring data usage was acceptable but required skills such as connecting to secure Wi-Fi connections when possible and using apps to set data limits and alerts. This interaction between data needs and skills exemplifies how digital goods, services and skills are needed in combination for MDLS.

5.2 Digital skills and knowledge: Necessary assets for online confidence and safety

All the components listed in the MDLS contents are interdependent and needed in combination for an acceptable digital living standard, including the equipment, connectivity, and digital skills and knowledge. We asked people in Scotland for their thoughts on the digital skills that groups listed in 2022. They agreed that some digital skills were more functional, while others were about critical thinking and knowledge of risks online. Although many skills overlap, they could be organised as follows:

Functional and Practical Skills

• Using basic device functions e.g., volume controls, turning devices on/off
• Using apps and programmes e.g., phone applications or computer software
• Connecting devices to the internet e.g., connecting to home or public Wi-Fi
• Managing documents and device storage e.g., saving and moving documents, deleting old files
• Internet browsing e.g., using an internet browser to find information
• Changing device and programme settings e.g., turning off notifications
• Managing and monitoring mobile data e.g., using phone features to track data usage of different apps
• Cashless and online payments e.g., online shopping or cashless payments for services

Critical Skills and Knowledge for Safety

• Evaluating what we see online e.g., friend requests, fraudulent links, misinformation, AI generated content, sponsored videos
• Evaluating what to share online e.g., personal details and locations
• Understanding digital footprint e.g., considering information/opinions put online
• Managing and monitoring banking activity and purchases e.g., monitoring transactions, removing card details to avoid accidental in-app purchases
• Monitoring time online e.g., self- or parental-monitoring of screen time
• Managing social pressures e.g., pressures to reply to instant messages, comparing ourselves to images online
• Using secure passwords e.g., setting strong passwords and storing them safely
• Content controls and location sharing e.g., turning on/off location sharing, blocking/enabling online content, reporting harmful content

The wide range of skills and knowledge were included in MDLS to enable parents and children to use digital technology and minimise risks while engaging online to socialise and access services and opportunities. The functional skills were about more positive uses of technology and giving people the confidence to enable them to do what they need. The critical skills and knowledge were primarily for mitigating risks, which were crucial because staying safe online was a key concern among parents and young people.

“Woman: My friend’s daughters are 14, 15 and are constantly sent message by strange men just on Snapchat or whatever, like I don’t know how, but it happens…. So, teaching them from a very young age like don’t contact people that you don’t know, don’t respond to people who send you messages.”

(Parents group, urban Scotland)

“Girl: I just don’t agree with like really young kids having phones at that age, I just don’t think they know enough and there is a lot of online bullying and things, but I know their parents can set up things like they can see everything their friend writes and everything they write.”

(Young person group, urban Scotland)

Groups described technological change as a challenging aspect of digitalisation because it required that people continuously develop their digital skills. Both parents and young people talked about the growing availability and use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, image generators and filters, which they said required new skills and awareness, including for (responsibly) using generative AI as a tool or discerning whether or not the things we see and hear are AI generated.

“Woman 1: AI is so dangerous because you can now video chat someone, but AI could make me look like Beyonce if I wanted to and somebody could think they are speaking to… [It] changes your voice, changes your look and you can’t always tell now, it is getting harder and harder to tell a manipulated image and it is now extended to video chats. It is so, so scary when you think, like news stories have been manipulated through AI generated images is so bad.”

(Parents group, urban Scotland)

“Girl: AI is making [students] work less… like, say my friend used it for an English essay but it’s not like what she’s done, in like, she is going to get good grades because she knows she has used AI but the teacher probably knew that and they don’t know what level she is at like, it is not true.”

(Young person group, urban Scotland)

Groups agreed that parents would need all of the listed skills to use digital goods and services safely and confidently. In contrast, children would need to develop their skills according to their level of online engagement and the types of devices and programmes they were using. For example, parents would support primary school-age children in emailing or uploading homework to educational apps like Google Classroom, while most older children progressing through secondary school would need to be able to use these platforms independently. Developing the critical skills of young people would also need to begin early with a focus on equipping them with appropriate safety knowledge before interacting with others online.