More on the Four "F"s - Part One: Fear

Fear (and lack of confidence) are 2 of the key problems people have when it comes to grappling with the online world. Never underestimate these factors - recently I had an email from a particularly unconfident learner, genuinely emailing me to say she didn't know how to email...

As I described earlier, fear can not only prevent people going online, but it also leads to people going offline again:


"Many users are put off continuing to use the internet because of fear. Thanks to telephone scams, hacks like the Talk Talk scandal, and reams of other news about the rise of cyber-crime, many conclude the internet is not for them any more. Fear of what may happen, or fear their computer has already been compromised and is no longer secure, is leading many of the less confident to put their laptop into a cupboard or the attic or just give it away. Some have actually been a victim of ID fraud, or attempted fraud once and decide they don't want to be again. For many, managing the security of their PC is something they have little or no confidence in doing."

So how to tackle this?

• There is no silver bullet, it takes planning and hard work - to make it easy for others, you'll have to put in extra effort yourself. Designing your digital inclusion solutions is important work if you want to make it successful.

• Thinking about what your target learners need can help a lot with this - if they don't need to build up office skills and so don't need Windows literacy, look at other options such as Android or Chrome (possibly even Linux) and see if they meet your needs. Anti-virus is less crucial, and people normally won't have to grapple with the various pitfalls surrounding Windows anti-virus: uninstalling free trial licences first, expired AV licences, finding a free alternative or affording licence renewal etc. Windows Defender has helped a little with this maybe, but it is still probably not enough for many, and many are still on earlier versions.

• Think about fool-proofing as much as possible - and be prepared to find out you've missed something and will need to tweak your solution for a version 2.0, or even 3.0.

• Help your learner to get a good balance between complacency and paranoia. It's worth reminding them that there are risks to your privacy and money offline as well online (and with widespread online fraud guarantees, the offline version is likely to be less pleasant and with less likelihood of recouping losses).

• Build in confidence-building time - as much as you possibly can. As digital exclusion gets "smaller" but more complicated and deep-seated, those left behind will need more and more resources to bring them into the online world, and more and more resources to sustain them.

• Be creative - for those stung by online fraud, you may need to help them look at less conventional options to help them feel safer, such as the pre-paid credit card market.

• Build in online safety to your training and help as much as possible - do your learners know how to change their password, or even their email address if they get an account hacked? Or even that they need to know?
• Sadly digital inclusion funding doesn't often allow for the gold standard service to cover all these needs, but it is important to recognise what this many mean for people. Síona Murray - Information Officer at Coleg Llandrillo - made this statement back in 2011, which I heartily agree with: " I would propose that ANYONE who does not receive E-Safety training, whether at home, in school, in college or through work, becomes a vulnerable adult online" - based on this measure, how many adults do we know who are vulnerable? It's a sobering thought.

TL;DR? The short version of all of the above, is that there are few real shortcuts; sadly something that is not often recognised or accommodated for - maybe it's time that changed.

I'll be looking at the second "F", Failures next time - thanks for reading

James Lewis
@jl_CHSGroup