A new open-access article titled “Digital news and inequalities: perspectives of young people in residential care system” has just been published in Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies (Taylor & Francis).
Authored by Maria João Leote de Carvalho, and CICANT researchers Teresa Sofia Castro and Maria José Brites, the study was developed under the YouNDigital – Youth, News and Digital Citizenship (DOI 10.54499/PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021) project.
The article examines how young people in the Portuguese child-protection system access and use digital media and news. It explores which sources they consider credible and how institutional contexts and emotional experiences shape their engagement and understanding of world events.
Within the scope of the project, an online survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 15–24-year-olds (N = 1,362) residing in Portugal. This article focuses on a subsample (n = 75) of young people placed in residential institutions within the national welfare system — a group rarely studied in this field. The data reveal that digital exclusion and institutional restrictions continue to shape their news consumption habits. While television and social media remain central to their daily routines, peers play a decisive role in how they interpret and trust news content.
The findings underline the persistence of digital and social inequalities among institutionalized youth and call for targeted public policies that ensure equitable access to technology and media literacy education — not only for young people but also for staff in care institutions. The authors argue that national regulations should be established to harmonize access and media engagement opportunities across residential care settings, preventing disparities that deepen existing inequalities.
Read the full open-access article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2025.2572785