Visualising key information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators for children and young individuals in Europe

The paper introduces DGmap, an online interactive application that visualises the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) among children and young individuals across European countries using data from large-scale international and European surveys. It situates the work within the broader context of increasing interest in ICT access and skills, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era, where digital skills and capital are essential in education. The study addresses first- and second-level digital divide issues at a micro level, examining access as well as skills, interest, and confidence in using ICT, and highlights potential socio-economic and demographic factors (e.g., gender, disability, age, socio-economic status) associated with the digital gap. DGmap covers indicators in four thematic categories related to minors and young people: digital skills and digital deprivation, family and leisure, education, and online civic participation, drawing on data from EU-SILC (2015–2020), PISA (2015, 2018), ESS (2018), ICILS (2018), the 2nd Survey of Schools: ICT in Education, and TIMSS (2019). The application enables cross-country comparisons, provides descriptive statistics, supports time-series exploration by country, and offers downloadable/customisable country reports and indicator documentation, thereby serving as a dynamic information source for stakeholders interested in children’s and adolescents’ digital technologies use. The paper outlines the methodology and technical specifications of DGmap, its main functionalities, the data sources used, the indicator selection and measurement, and concludes with discussion and future work.

The methodology integrates design principles from prior social data visualisation efforts (e.g., Erasmus University Rotterdam labour market resilience map, Eurostat’s Statistical Atlas) and an information dashboard taxonomy (Few, 2013) to address strategic (at-a-glance cross-country comparisons), operational (longitudinal trends), and analytical (downloadable data for relationships) needs. The development followed Fry’s (2008) seven-stage pipeline—acquire, parse, filter, mine, represent, refine, interact—with expert and stakeholder feedback informing refinements to functionalities, design, and layout prior to launch. The team surveyed three categories of ready-made mapping systems: simple upload-and-share tools (e.g., Google Maps, Heatmapper, Gunnmap, Datawrapper), intermediate platforms with more customisation (e.g., Tableau Public, ArcGIS, InstantAtlas), and flexible embedded approaches using third-party libraries (e.g., GeoCharts, Polymaps, D3.js, Mapbox, Leaflet). Given DGmap’s requirements (dynamic indicators, user-customised charts, dynamic reports, spreadsheet downloads, yearly updates), the embedded approach using Google GeoCharts was selected to ensure unrestricted functionality; Tableau Public was considered but discarded due to limited customisation. Data processing adheres to a documented workflow: identify and access raw data from large-scale surveys; download data and questionnaires; link indicators to literal questions/variables; perform missing value analysis, recoding, transformations, and descriptive statistics; construct advanced indicators where relevant (e.g., Likert scales for ICT interest and confidence, factor analyses for unidimensionality); compute indicator values by country applying appropriate survey weights (e.g., PISA W_FSTUWT). Values are imported into spreadsheets and pre-processed into a unified database designed for DGmap, facilitating efficient retrieval and future extensibility. Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript with Bootstrap v4.0 for responsive UI and charts, jQuery v3.5.1 for DOM and AJAX interactions, Google GeoCharts for map visualisation with drill-down and dynamic highlighting, and Chart.js v3.6.0 for graphs. AJAX enables partial page updates. Backend: Python v3.8.8 with Flask v2.0.1 and Gunicorn v20.1.0; NumPy and Matplotlib support server-side computations and plotting. The platform is open-access without registration, uses SSL encryption for privacy and data integrity, and is tested across major browsers on MacOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Indicators span four domains—digital skills/deprivation, family/leisure, education, and online civic participation—built from EU-SILC, PISA, ESS, ICILS, the 2nd Survey of Schools: ICT in Education, and TIMSS. Each indicator on DGmap includes metadata (definition, age group, source database, literal question, variables, weighting, and replication details) and downloadable Excel files. The frontend provides interactive selection, country highlighting, min–max bar positioning, hover tooltips with values, basic descriptive statistics (min, max, mean, standard deviation), and time series or categorical charts depending on indicator type.

- Access and deprivation (EU level trends): Between 2015 and 2019, the proportion of households with children aged 5–16 unable to afford a computer decreased from 4.89% to 4.12%; inability to afford internet connection declined from 5.00% to 2.53% over the same period. The share of children living in digitally deprived households (no computer and/or internet) fell from 6.74% (2015) to 4.00% (2020) across Europe. - Country contrasts in digital deprivation (2020): Romania recorded the highest rate of digitally deprived children (5–16) at over 23%, while Estonia and Norway had the lowest rates at 0.57% and 0.63%, respectively. - Internet use time (PISA 2018, 15-year-olds): Mean weekly internet use outside school across 29 European countries was about 27 hours; at school, about 8 hours. Highest outside-school use: Sweden 32.40 h, UK 30.36 h, Malta 29.60 h. Lowest outside-school use: Georgia 24.22 h, Slovenia 23.37 h, Albania 20.14 h. Highest at-school use: Denmark 17.80 h, Sweden 14.01 h. Lowest at-school use: Ireland 4.16 h, Malta 3.98 h. - ICT attitudes (PISA 2018): Adolescents in Slovakia exhibit the lowest interest and confidence in ICT; French students show the highest interest; adolescents in the UK feel the most confident. - Coverage: DGmap currently visualises 52 indicators across four domains (digital skills and deprivation; family and leisure; education; online civic participation), enabling cross-country comparisons, time trends, and downloadable data for analysis.

The findings illustrate substantial heterogeneity across European countries in children’s and adolescents’ digital access, use, and attitudes, with overall improvements in access and reductions in digital deprivation over time. DGmap consolidates dispersed survey evidence into a single, user-friendly platform that enables stakeholders to assess relative positions of countries, track temporal changes, and explore relationships between indicators. By providing thorough metadata and replicable procedures (including weights and variable mappings), the tool enhances transparency and facilitates research and policy analysis. The ability to download indicator values supports further analytical work, such as exploring correlations (e.g., between ICT interest and confidence) and modelling socio-economic and demographic determinants of digital engagement or deprivation. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, DGmap’s indicators provide timely, comparable metrics to inform policies addressing digital divides and to evaluate the educational and social impacts of ICT among minors and youth.

The paper presents DGmap, a dynamic, continuously updated platform that visualises robust, comparable indicators of ICT access, use, skills, and civic participation among children and young people in Europe. It contributes an integrated, metadata-rich resource that supports cross-country benchmarking, time-series analysis, and downloadable datasets for further research. Future work includes expanding coverage with new survey waves (e.g., ESS 2020, PISA 2022, ICILS 2023, TIMSS 2023) to capture post-COVID-19 developments and deepen analysis of socio-economic disparities in digital competencies. Additional indicators and data sources will be incorporated, and functionalities refined based on stakeholder feedback.

- Rapidly evolving ICT environments mean that by the time new survey data are released, identified, and processed, indicators may lag current realities. The tool mitigates this by ongoing updates but cannot eliminate temporal gaps. - Coverage of online civic participation indicators is limited relative to other domains; ESS-based measures use a broader age range (15–24) due to sample size constraints, reducing direct comparability with 15-year-old-focused indicators. - Cross-country comparability depends on harmonisation and available variables within each survey; some indicators may not be available for all countries or years, and missing data handling can affect estimates. - Reliance on self-reported survey data may introduce measurement biases (e.g., recall or social desirability effects).