The significance of cultural capital and parental mediation for digital inequity

A digital divide continues to be reported across and within nations, first as an access issue and second as an issue of effective usage. To address the latter issue, we argue that digital equity should not be conceptualized solely as a technical or resource related issue. We developed a conceptual framework based on cultural capital and parental mediation to investigate the complexity of digital inequity. Our in-depth case study of 22 Hong Kong students revealed that although information and communication technology (ICT) is thoroughly integrated with students’ everyday lives, some students lack the cultural or parenting resources required to build their capacity to effectively and meaningfully use ICT. Three salient clusters of users emerged: “celebrating” users, “coping” users, and “struggling” users. The results reveal the significance of parental mediation and cultural capital for students’ ICT use and thus digital equity.