Children’s Access and Connection to Digital Technology

In this chapter, children’s access to and connection to digital technologies are analysed, beginning with their socio-demographic characteristics. The chapter highlights the centrality of mobile technology in children’s digital lives and paints a broader picture of how mobile phones are configuring and reconfiguring digital connectivity in the local context. Children in Nigeria have access to a range of digital technologies, including (in order of prevalence) mobile phones, personal computers and laptops, the Internet, and social media. The majority of their access to the Internet and social media is via the mobile Internet, that is, Internet-capable (or smart) phones. Their device-based access is both direct (when they have their own phones) and indirect or alternative (through shared use or similar means).