Digital skills: does your child know more about technology than you?.

Digital skills: does your child know more about technology than you?.

Many parents recognize the image: a child who installs a new app without effort, adjusts settings or solves a problem on the laptop. Chapter 6 of the Staat van de Ouder 2026 shows that many parents feel that their child knows more digitally than they do themselves. Especially in secondary education, more than half of the parents feel their child surpasses them digitally.

Being digitally skilled is more than being able to use a device

Many children grow up with smartphones, tablets and laptops. Because of this, they often seem to find their way in the online world effortlessly. However, digital skills consist of much more than clicking fast or understanding an app.

Digital skills also include:

• searching for and assessing information;
• recognizing fake news;
• handling personal data safely;
• understanding how social media and algorithms work;
• and thinking critically about online information.

Tip for parents:

Ask your child not only what they do online, but also how they know that information is reliable. That often leads to surprising conversations.

Parents sometimes feel insecure

The research shows that many parents wonder if they can still guide their child well in the digital world. If your child seems more skilled with technology than you, that can feel insecure.

However, that does not have to be a problem. As a parent, you do not have to know everything to be involved.

Tip for parents:

Sometimes let your child explain something. For example, ask how a certain app works or why something is popular. That gives you insight and shows you are interested.

You learn digital skills together

An important message from this chapter is that digital development is not only the school’s task. Of course, education plays an important role, but children also learn at home how to deal with technology.

Children look not only at what parents say, but also at what parents do.

Tip for parents:

Talk at home about online behavior. For example:

• What do you share online and what do you not?
• How do you deal with strangers?
• What do you do if you come across something that is wrong?

By talking about this, digital behavior becomes as normal to discuss as behavior in the offline world.

Digital skills have become basic skills

Where reading, writing and arithmetic have been natural parts of education for years, digital skills are becoming more important. The government now sees digital literacy as an important basic skill for students. This is not only about technology, but also about critical thinking, media literacy and information skills.

That is important, because children deal daily with online information, social media, artificial intelligence and digital systems.

Tip for parents:

Encourage curiosity. Ask not only what your child does online, but also why something works the way it does. That helps children understand technology better instead of just using it.

It is not about knowing everything

What stands out most from chapter 6 is that many parents feel the digital world changes faster than they can keep up. That feeling is understandable. Technology develops rapidly, and no one can be informed about everything.

The question is therefore not if you know everything as a parent, but if you stay involved.

Tip for parents:

Try to show interest regularly in your child’s digital world. A short conversation during dinner can sometimes yield more than a long talk about rules and screen time.