The rhetoric around young people's uses of technology are leading to assumptions and practices that are likely to make some individuals even more excluded from society in two main ways. First, such assumptions lead to an increased likelihood of a lack of support being offered in the engagements they have with the organisations that are designed to help them. When such assumptions are strong it makes it difficult for people to ask for help. Second, while a 'digital by default' strategy works well for those who need to be persuaded to do online, such a strategy does not work well for this group of young people who are willing to go online, but find it difficult to do so for a variety of reasons. As more and more services both in and outside the public sector go 'digital by default', for example, supermarkets only accepting online applications, the relative disadvantages for this group increases. We need strategies that both remove barriers to being online and support young people in developing their agency and skills to use the Internet. Thus from our analysis we would propose strategies that: Facilitate connections between young people who used to be outside the digital mainstream and those who are currently still living outside the digital mainstream. Allow for the possibility that young people may need support in using the Internet and enable young people to identify problems with their skill sets that they have with going online. Improve the quality of physical access to computers