Notes to Editors

Connected Childhood Digital Wellbeing & Resilience Index

 

Connected Childhood’s Digital Wellbeing and Resilience Index (DWRI) measures multiple dimensions of children and young people’s digital lives to create a composite indicator giving a holistic picture of their online experience.

 

This report then applies a child rights and public health lens to the findings so responsibility for the agenda-setting recommendations sits with Save the Children and Vodafone Foundation.

 

The DWRI 2025 survey was conducted by Ipsos during December 2025 – January 2026, surveying 7,755 children and young people aged 13-18 across nine countries (Albania, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom).

 

It asked about seven aspects of digital activity and impacts: the five domains of the core Index (Security and Safety, Management, Identity and Relationships, Digital Literacy, and Empathy and Protection) and two indicators of Engagement and Digital Wellbeing. Scores are calculated from combined responses, converted to a percentage of the total and banded as low, medium, good or high to indicate how fully the aspect is achieved.

 

Vodafone Foundation and Save the Children partnership

 

In February 2025, Vodafone Foundation and Save the Children announced a groundbreaking partnership to launch a new Europe-wide digital skills and resilience training programme for children aged 9 to 16.

 

The collaboration is focused on upskilling children beyond digital skills, with bespoke content addressing online safety, digital rights, and ethical online behaviour.

 

By integrating these important elements into educational systems worldwide, both are helping to shape a healthier, safer digital landscape for young people today, while positively impacting their lives tomorrow.

 

Bespoke educational content combines Vodafone Foundation’s successful approach to driving inclusion through digital learning with Save the Children’s expertise in child protection, wellbeing and children’s rights.

 

The training is being integrated into Vodafone Foundation’s ‘Skills Upload Junior’, a Europe wide digital skills education programme that has reached over 10 million children in the last five years.

 

About Vodafone Foundation

 

Vodafone Foundation (UK registered charity number 1193984) harnesses the power of connectivity to drive social good. Since 1991, it has invested in communities by connecting people and ideas with technology and funding, delivering impactful change alongside partners worldwide.

 

About Save the Children

 

Save the Children works in over 100 countries, fighting for kids’ rights and wellbeing. For a century, Save the Children has made sure children stay safe, healthy, and learning, and that their voices are heard.

 

For more information, visit www.vodafonefoundation.org and www.savethechildren.org.uk

 

Technical notes on the research

The DWRI 2025 survey was developed by Save the Children and Vodafone Foundation from its Index. It explored young people’s digital access, use, experiences and impacts.

As part of its partnership with Vodafone Foundation, Save the Children commissioned Ipsos in the UK, a market research agency, to carry out a representative survey of 13-18 year-olds in nine European countries: Albania, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

 

The DWRI 2025 survey was conducted by Ipsos during December 2025 – January 2026, with 7,755 children and young people aged 13-18 across nine countries. In Albania the survey was conducted face-to-face, including young people regardless of whether their household was online or not. In the other nations, the survey was conducted online only with young people in households already participating in the online panel.

 

The core DWRI index measures five domains of safety, management, identity and relationships, digital literacy, and empathy and protection and is supplemented with two indicators of digital wellbeing and enablement (access). Scores are calculated by allocating points for responses, summing these across all items and converting this total to a percentage of the maximum possible score. Percentage scores are banded as low, medium, good or high to indicate how fully the index or indicator is being achieved.

 

For example, on the finding about digital wellbeing: Just over 1 in 4 scored good or high on digital wellbeing (26% on average across the nations scored 7 or more out of 10 on this indicator). While most scored moderately (64% scored 5 or 6), 1 in 10 young people scored low (10% scored under 5 out of 10).

 

Data are weighted within each country by age, gender and region. Unless specified as national, figures are the average across the nine nations. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error. The findings report associations identified in the data, but do not show causal links and cannot be used to infer causation.

 

About Ipsos

Ipsos is one of the world’s leading market research companies, operating in 90 countries. Ipsos in the UK delivers reliable information and a true understanding of society, markets, and people, providing clients with the confidence to make important decisions. For more information, visit www.ipsos.com/en-uk

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