How digitally ready are Australian children?
The Australian Digital Readiness Index
An annual cross-sectional survey of 1,000 Australian parents mapping the digital lives of children aged 9-14, the capabilities that define readiness, and the conditions that support those capabilities.
··Approved by Dr Sarah L. Howe
- 1,000
- Parents and carers
- 9-14 yo
- Childrens age
- Six
- Research questions
- 2026
- Baseline year
What we measure
The Index is setting a baseline for Australia
What children's digital lives look like
What children mainly do on devices, the digital milestones they've already reached, and how their digital lives change between 9 and 14.
What children can do
How ready are children across self-regulation, critical judgement and help-seeking, and does it differ between them?
Whether it comes with age or access
How are age, digital life and access to devices related to readiness?
What parents bring to it
How parents stay connected, set rules, check in and hand over independence related to readiness?
What it means for families
What children mainly do on devices, the digital milestones they've already reached, and how their digital lives change between 9 and 14.
What support parents want
Whether parents think devices came too early, do they want more support, and does the guidance reach them.
Repeated annually, it becomes a record of change.
The 2026 edition establishes a baseline for Australia, not a verdict on individual children.
Methodology
Built from established child development measures, adapted to capture digital readiness for the first time
Who's Behind The Index
Developmental Research Psychologist
Dr Sarah L. Howe
Dr Sarah L. Howe designed the Digital Readiness Index and leads its analysis. Her expertise is in how studies are built and what their data can support. She is engaged independently, with published work in children's emotional development and parenting.
Research Partner
Pureprofile
The Australian Digital Readiness Index is fielded by Pureprofile, an independent research provider, ensuring our data meets the highest standards of national consumer research.
The Lab Behind The Index
Digital Readiness Lab
The Lab defines the research questions, connects the Index to the wider evidence base and publishes the findings, methodology and limitations.
Methodology & Data Specs
- Sample size
- A cross-sectional survey of 1,029 Australian parents and carers, each reporting on one child aged 9 to 14.
- Study design
- Designed to be repeated each year to track how children's digital readiness, and the conditions around it, change across Australia.
- Reporting standard
- Every measure, statistical test and limitation is published in a technical report and appendix alongside the index.
Research Context
- Evidence framework
- Grounded in research across developmental psychology, parenting and children's digital lives, and framed by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development.
- Independent governance
- Funded by the Digital Readiness Lab, data collected by Pureprofile; designed and analysed by Dr Sarah Howe. All results and tests are published, including those that weren't significant.
One study. Not the whole answer.
The Index doesn't exist in a vacuum.
The Index is one part of a much wider body of evidence across developmental psychology, digital literacy, online safety, family research, resilience, attention, education and child development.
Our job isn't to make one survey carry the weight of an entire field.
It's to put what we're learning alongside what researchers around the world already know, identify where the evidence converges, and make the gaps visible.
The whole becomes worth more than the parts.
Why an Index?
Because digital childhood doesn't stand still.
Platforms change. Technology changes. Parenting changes. Policy changes. Children's experiences change. So we measure again.
Each annual edition gives us another point in the story, helping us see what is changing, where gaps remain and what questions we need to ask next.
From measurement to action
But we don't just measure readiness to publish the report
The Index helps The Lab identify where capability is developing, where conditions are falling short, and which questions need deeper investigation.
The evidence comes from research, frameworks, products, programs, advisory, and guides future standards.
And then, we measure it again.
Evidence → Action → Evidence ↻