Digital Literacy for Safer Practices among Mothers in Rural Indonesia: A Participatory Community-Based Intervention in Tiris Village, Probolinggo, East Jawa

ABSTRACT : This study reports and examines a participatory community-based digital literacy intervention conducted with mothers in Tiris Village, Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia. The intervention was designed to strengthen participants’ understanding of digital literacy and practical smartphone skills. The program was implemented through participatory educational sessions, discussion, demonstrations, hands-on smartphone practice, and individual and group assistance. Activities were conducted on 27 and 30 June 2026. Data were derived from participant interaction, questions and discussions, observations during practical activities, and qualitative comparison of participants’ understanding before and after the intervention. The findings indicated changes across three interconnected domains. First, participants developed a broader understanding of digital literacy beyond basic smartphone and social-media use. Second, hands-on practice supported participants in performing everyday digital tasks with greater confidence and independence. Third, participants demonstrated increased awareness of personal-data protection, suspicious messages, online fraud, and the need to verify information before sharing it. The findings suggested that context-sensitive, participatory, and practice-oriented digital literacy education can help address the gap between access to digital technologies and meaningful digital capability in rural communities. However, because the evaluation did not employ standardized pre- and postintervention measures or a comparison group, the findings should be interpreted as qualitative evidence of observed learning rather than causal evidence of program effectiveness.

KEYWORDS: digital literacy; digital safety; rural communities; mothers; smartphone use