Confidence at every level: Revisiting the role confidence plays in digital inclusion

Connectivity, kit, capability and confidence

During the Covid-19 pandemic and turbo-charged by the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the ability to ‘access and master’ technologies - chiefly through digital access and skills - has been foregrounded. Yet helping people become and stay digitally included is more than connectivity, kit, and capability; it is also about their confidence to engage with the online world.

Ofcom’s annual Media Use and Attitudes report (2025) shows that while overall confidence online is increasing (87% of people consider themselves confident internet users, up from 83% in the previous year), confidence to undertake key tasks online is lower. They report that 26% of people don’t identify as confident when managing personal data online (2025).

Ofcom (2025) also discusses confidence in the context of a user’s critical evaluation of media and technologies; the benefits and the risks. Someone with good critical understanding skills but who is under-confident could feel unsafe online and not use the internet to its potential - conversely, someone whose confidence is not matched by their capability may be more likely to make mistakes, resulting in online harm (Ofcom, 2025). 

Ofcom (2025) states that many non-users are simply not interested in being online. Whilst we recognise that this is the case for some, other evidence suggests that this only offers a surface-level answer to why some people are digitally excluded. A potential user’s ‘disinterest’ or an ‘absence of need’ masking, actually, the absence of confidence.

We suggest that taking a deeper look at the relationship between confidence and digital inclusion is needed, to have a better understanding of the steps needed to empower people to make the most of being online. It’s for these reasons that we want to explore confidence more deeply.

Defining confidence: looking beyond the individual 

Confidence has been a typically overshadowed area of tackling the digital divide, one reason being that it is a knotty and hard-to-measure concept compared to digital access (data, devices) or skills and capability. 

When explored in relation to digital inclusion, confidence has been typically linked to digital skills. It has been conceptualised at the level of the individual; an internal attribute that can be fostered by helping someone build and practice their digital capabilities. While this perspective is valuable - as per the aforementioned Ofcom report (2025) - taken on its own, it dangers overlooking wider dimensions that shape people’s perceptions of how beneficial or harmful engaging with the online world could be. We also know that those who face more barriers to feeling safe using the internet and digital technologies are often from communities who face poorer health and/or social outcomes - who have even more at stake.

In the UK Government’s recent Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps ‘building confidence’ is aligned with ‘supporting local delivery’ as a key pillar of promoting digital inclusion. While there is an invaluable role for community-level organisations in building individual confidence to go online, recent work by Good Things Foundation also points to the need to approach confidence through a broader, more comprehensive lens. Here, we summarise insights from two projects which explored how people’s beliefs and trust in social systems, institutions, and infrastructure shape their confidence and motivation to engage with the online world.

The confidence 360 degree approach

In January, Good Things’ Advocacy Manager Hannah Whelan conducted research at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies on digital confidence; conducting a focused literature review and speaking to 14 people with lived experience of digital exclusion - hearing first-hand what confidence and attitudinal barriers they faced when engaging online. 

Findings suggested that a ‘360 degree approach’ to digital confidence needed to be taken; at every level, the user (micro), the family and neighbours and community organisations (meso), and the news media, regulators, large scale institutions and Governments (macro) needed to address digital confidence. Valuable strategies are the ones that ensure a user’s confidence is built by everyone, in every layer, of their orbit. 

"And I thought I want to see what they’re up to. How do they do it? And that sort of pushed me to think, alright if [the kids] can do it then I need to now."

"So I’ve been having computer lessons, and I now know a bit more. And I feel a bit more confident when it comes to computers [...] I feel more confident with that."

"Like a news story that comes up about a scam or something about the internet in general, I do tend to sit and watch it just to see what's going on, because sometimes they’ll come up with lots of helpful tips and stuff to be able to help other people."

 

(Whelan, 2025)

The world that surrounds the user has a critical influence on their confidence and research showed that consistent and authentic access to multiple levels of support was fundamental to shift attitudes and sustain digital engagement.

In focus: Beliefs and trust in digital health services

Our recent work exploring belief and trust barriers to using digital health services also highlights the different dimensions of digital confidence that influence people’s engagement with the online world. As access to healthcare services is increasingly digitised, we conducted a research and co-design project to explore people’s concerns around using digital health services, such as the NHS App, online booking platforms, and video consultations. 

Our work found that people’s confidence to use these online services reflects their beliefs and trust around:

• The effectiveness of the technology and service infrastructure: Many people believe it is harder to communicate health concerns through digital services, potentially leading to poorer care
• Other people’s roles within digital health services: Concerns about who has access to data provided through digital platforms, whether they will interpret and process it correctly, and what this will mean for access to care
• Wider safety and security of personal data: Influenced by broader trust (or lack of) in institutions and concerns about whether data will be shared beyond the best interests of the individual.

Our project indicated a need for support to help people recognise and talk through these common concerns about digital health services. We developed a simple leaflet, designed to be used in community settings, to prompt discussion about these concerns, and help people to feel more confident about their choice to engage with digital health services. 

Next steps to supporting digital confidence

Our two examples of recent work exploring digital confidence suggest that taking a multi-dimension, multi-layered perspective is important. We suggest that more research is needed to examine the wider influences on people’s confidence, particularly from the meso and macro levels. We also call for changes in policy and practice, reflecting the different levels in which digital confidence is shaped, to ensure a more effective approach to fixing the digital divide.

Research: Shift the gaze upwards and outwards

• We need to draw further on evidence of how people feel about, and engage with, core services online - such as health, government services and financial services. This will help us to understand how individual confidence is shaped by beliefs and trust in wider systems and services. 
• Further research is needed at the macro level, of confidence and trust in institutions, and of public and media discourse around the internet and digital technologies. This will help us understand how these factors influence people’s day-to-day engagement with online services, particularly among groups who face inequalities and disadvantage. 

Practice: Calling all service designers!

• We know that service design has a part to play. Service designers need support to understand better how confidence in broader systems and processes shapes how people feel about engaging with online services. 
• Testing and refining new online services needs to take place in context, to understand the wider support and information that people might need to feel confident to use a new digital platform or tool, beyond their individual capability.

Policy: The next steps for the Digital Inclusion Action Plan

• The Government’s ‘Next Steps’ on digital inclusion need to ensure adequate resourcing of community-level delivery to ensure trusted places can continue helping people feel safe and confident online. As indicated in our recent work around digital health services, fostering dialogue in community spaces around people’s concerns is a key step to building confidence.
• Finally, a more comprehensive commitment to building confidence needs to be established across Government systems, institutions, and services. Leaving responsibility for digital confidence to the community level only means the macro-level factors shaping people’s trust in the online world will continue to be overlooked.

Digital confidence is not (only) an individual attribute - it relates to beliefs and trust in people, systems, institutions, and infrastructure that shape our being in the world. We need to understand and take seriously the wider factors that influence an individual’s sense of wanting and being able to use online services and resources - as not addressing what influences digital confidence risks exacerbating existing social inequalities. If we want to fix the digital divide, we need to tackle digital confidence head on and across all levels. 

To learn more about beliefs and trust concerns that can act as barriers to people accessing digital health services, and how to address them, book a place on our online event, being held on Tuesday 1st July, 12pm - 1pm.