STUDIES / RESEARCH: Children’s online experiences in socially disadvantaged families: European evidence and policy recommendations

Very interesting study by EU Kids online on children's online use and online expression!

Read on!

Over the last years the EU Kids Online-Network has presented a wide range of empirical evidence on children's online use and online experiences. Within this field special attention has to be paid to socially disadvantaged children, because they are more vulnerable to different kinds of harm resulting from online risks than other children.

This report summarises findings on social disadvantage from the EU Kids Online II dataset and from other studies conducted in countries belonging to the EU Kids Online network in recent years. This is complemented by results of a long term study dealing with the media socialisation of socially disadvantaged children in Austria. The conclusion provides recommendations on how to support socially disadvantaged children and adolescents in making better experiences with the internet.

Access and use are the main topics of almost all the studies covered, but for Europe we can state that a lack of access to the internet is not the key problem. This is different, however, for countries like Brazil or Russia. In Europe children and adolescents differ in the way they use the internet and they have different preferences concerning content, e.g. a stronger interest in entertainment.

The educational background of the family (which correlates highly with the economic well-being of a family) plays the major role influencing the different ways the internet is used. Children of lower educated parents are often left alone when dealing with the internet.

Full study

EVENTS / CONFERENCES: Say NO! to cyberbullying (BULGARIA)

On 27 and 28 August 2011, an international conference titled ‘Say NO! to Cyberbullying’ took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. It gathered together school principals and teachers from nine cities and towns, and representatives and experts from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. The forum was jointly organised by the Madara-Bulgaria Foundation, the Department for Information and Qualification of Teachers at Sofia University and the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) at the Applied Research and Communications Fund.

Dr Stefania Dimitrova, Chair of the Madara-Bulgaria Foundation, presented several international studies on cyberbullying, including the EU Kids Online pan-European study from 2010. Through comparing the results, Dr Dimitrova demonstrated that, in the views of children and youth, e-violence is the most harmful risk they face online.

full article

EVENTS: EU Kids Online Conference 2011 – registration now open

Registration for the 2011 EU Kids Online Conference, to be held in London 22-23 September 2011, is now open. With a conference theme of Children, risk and safety online: Research and policy challenges in a comparative perspective, this will be the final conference of the EU Kids Online II project.

For further information and to register online, please visit the EU Kids Online website.

REPORTS: Risks and safety on the internet: The perspective of European Children.

Report: Risks and safety on the internet: The perspective of European
Children.

Full Findings (published 13/01/11)

Full findings from the EU Kids Online survey of 9-16 year olds and their
parents.

* These findings are based on the answers of 25,000 children across
25 European countries, and are linked to key policy implications.

* The press release, executive summary in the languages of
participating countries, methodology and presentations can all be found
on the project website.

* Join the mailing list

To receive project updates, please join the mailing list if you have not
done so already. Join here:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/EUKidsOnline/MailingList.htm

* Project website: www.eukidsonline.net

Enhancing Knowledge Regarding European Children's Use, Risk and Safety
Online

This project| centres on a cross-national survey of European children's
experiences of the internet, focusing on uses, activities, risks and
safety. It also maps parents' experiences, practices and concerns
regarding their children's online risk and safety.

More than 25,000 children from across Europe (and one of their parents)
were interviewed for the study, EU Kids Online, based at the London
School of Economics and Political Science, co-ordinated by Professor
Sonia Livingstone and Dr Leslie Haddon, and funded by the European
Commission's Safer Internet Programme.

The EU Kids Online project aims to enhance knowledge of European
children's and parents' experiences and practices regarding risky and
safer use of the internet and new online technologies, and thereby to
inform the promotion of a safer online environment for children.

Countries included in EU Kids Online are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media at
Nordicom, University of Gothenburg, is co-ordinating the Swedish
participation in the project.

....................................................................
The International Clearinghouse
on Children, Youth and Media
NORDICOM, University of Gothenburg
P.O. Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
Tel: +46 31 786 49 53, Fax: +46 31 786 46 55
Web site: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/clearinghouse.php
Nordicom on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nordicom_news
Nordicom on Facebook: http://bit.ly/4AdtZ4

PRESS RELEASE: EU Kids Online - Children need more help to block online threats says European internet study

Children need more help to block online threats says European internet study

Internet companies should provide more ways for children to block, filter or report alarming online content and contacts, recommends a new study for the European Commission.

The report suggests that both children and parents are reassured when given tools to take action against online dangers such as bullying, sexual content and intrusive strangers. Yet they often don’t use the options available (including online safety advice or the so-called ‘panic buttons’ operated by social networking sites) and the industry could do more to promote their use.

More than 25,000 children from across Europe (and one of their parents) were interviewed for the study, EU Kids Online, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science and funded by the Commission’s Safer Internet Programme.

The study revealed that while 70 per cent of parents talk to their children about what they do on the internet and more than half offer practical advice and support, relatively few use technical tools to help. Only 28 per cent choose to block or filter websites and 24 per cent track the websites visited by their child.

In fact, the survey shows, most children are not bothered or upset by what they encounter online – only 12 per cent say they have been. And while children said bullying was relatively uncommon with just one in 20 saying it had happened to them, children who had been bullied online were the most likely to say this upset them.

Across all media, 23 per cent of children have seen sexual or pornographic images in the past year with the internet now as common a source as TV, film and video. While this is much more likely for older teenagers, younger children are more bothered or upset by seeing sexual images. And children are going online at ever younger ages – at an average age of seven in Denmark and Sweden and eight in many other Northern European countries.

Sonia Livingstone, professor of media and communication at LSE and project director of EU Kids Online, said: ‘Parents and the online industry have taken some good first steps to make the internet a safer place for children but they could both do much more'.

‘Our research shows that children welcome their parents’ involvement with the risks of being online but that there are too few technical tools to help with blocking contacts, filtering unwanted content or reporting problems when they happen. Where these tools exist, we suspect there is little awareness of them and how to use them. We recommend that the industry builds more of these tools, does more to inform both parents and children about them, and makes them more user-friendly.’

The report also suggests targeting resource and guidance for safety at the ever younger children who now go online, as well as developing more positive content aimed specifically at children. However, the authors also emphasise that children should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own safety online as much as possible and that young people left behind in picking up digital skills should be offered extra training and support to broaden their opportunities.

Researchers surveyed children’s online experience in 25 European countries and the report presents the full findings and the team’s policy recommendations. Initial findings from the report were presented to the Safer Internet Forum in November 2010.

For more details, and a full copy of the report see www.eukidsonline.net

Ends

Notes to editors

1. The EU Kids Online project aims to enhance knowledge of European children’s and parents’ experiences and practices regarding risky and safer use of the internet and new online technologies, and thereby to inform the promotion of a safer online environment for children.

2. Countries included in EU Kids Online are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

The EU Kids Online network
Project website: http://www.eukidsonline.net/
Join our mailing list here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/EUKidsOnline/MailingList.htm

RESEARCH / STUDIES: Overuse of the internet is very high among UK children says new EU Kids Online study (EUROPE)

Excessive use of the internet is very high among children in the UK with one in five admitting they have gone without food or sleep to stay online.

The UK findings from the EU Kids Online survey reported this month by the London School of Economics and Political Science also show that more than half of young people confess they spend less time than they should on family, friends or schoolwork because of the internet.

Use of social network sites is also high for young people in this country – 65 per cent of 9- 16 year olds have their own profile on one or more sites compared to 57 per cent across Europe.

However, children in the UK are among the most web-savvy, with a good understanding of how to negotiate risky activity on the internet and to protect themselves. As a result, the project now classifies the UK as a high-use but low-risk country, where it had previously been ranked high in both categories.

See LSE website for the UK report1 and the press release reporting initial findings from the survey of 1032 UK 9-16 year olds.

The 23 country pan-European report, published 21/10/10, is also available at EU Kids Online website.

Source: Ofcom Media Literacy Bulletin Issue 39