EU Kids Online

Resultados Nacionais do Projeto Net Children Go Mobile

Simões, J. A., Ponte, C., Ferreira, E., Doretto, J, Azevedo, C. (2014). Crianças e Meios Digitais Móveis em Portugal: Resultados Nacionais do Projeto Net Children Go Mobile. Lisboa: CESNOVA.

Using data collected from the EU Kids Online II project, a random stratified sample of 18.709 adolescents aged 11-16 years, from 25 European countries, was used to analyse the relationship between excessive Internet use (EIU) and a set of psychological, behavioural, and demographic variables. At a European level, psychological variables were the best predictors, accounting for more of the variation in EIU than both behavioural and demographic variables combined. On a national level, the most stable predictor was emotional difficulties, while all the other variables shifted across countries.

This report updates and deepens the understanding of cross-national differences among the countries surveyed in EU Kids
Online. It examines the range and type of online opportunities, risks and harm experienced by the children in each country. It also takes into account the ways in which parents mediate or
regulate their children’s internet use in each country.
Clusters of countries are most clearly distinguished in terms of sexual content risks. Children who are bullied or who give away personal data are uniformly distributed across the countries. Using these and many other factors, the report identifies four country clusters overall: unprotected networkers, protected by restrictions, semi supported risky gamers, and supported risky explorers.
This new analysis reveals that differences within countries are substantially larger than differences between countries, whether measured in terms of online opportunities, risk of harm or forms of parental mediation. The advantage of such pan-European similarities is that it makes sense for policy  makers in one country to learn from the best practice initiated
in another.

This paper aims to explore the use of, experiences with, and risks of internet among children in Kosovo. This country has never been involved in the European project called Kids Online. Through a survey based on the Kids Online questionnaire, 437 children aged 11-16 were surveyed in 34 schools across the country. The results show that over 90% of children of this age stay online from one to six hours; YouTube and Instagram are the most preferred platforms; over 90% of them own smartphones. Conversely, many parents have admitted to being less knowledgeable about technology than their children. Parental mediation and schooling remain important, and the paper recommends the introduction of Media Literacy as a separate subject in pre-university education in Kosovo. Raba spleta, spletne izkušnje in tveganja otrok s Kosova Članek preučuje rabo spleta, spletne izkušnje in s tem povezana tveganja otrok s Kosova. Gre za državo, ki ni bila vključena v evropski projekt Kids Online, zato smo v raziskavi izvedli anketo na temelju vprašalnika Kids Online. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 437 otrok, starih od 11 do 16 let, iz 34 kosovskih šol. Rezultati kažejo, da več kot 90 odstotkov otrok te starosti na spletu preživi dnevno od ene ure do šest ur, med najbolj priljubljenimi spletnimi okolji pa sta YouTube in Instagram. Iz rezultatov raziskave tudi razberemo, da ima preko 90 odstotkov otrok v lasti pametni telefon. Pomemben rezultat je tudi, da so številni starši priznali, da imajo manj znanja o tehnologiji kot njihovi otroci. Avtorji poudarjajo pomen starševske mediacije in izobraževanja na tem področju ter predlagajo uvedbo posebnega predmeta o medijski pismenosti na preduniverzitetni ravni na Kosovem.

This report presents new findings and further analysis of the EU Kids Online 25 country survey regarding excessive use of the internet by children. It shows that while a number of children (29%) have experienced one or more of the five components associated with excessive internet use, very few (1%) can be said to show pathological levels of use.

Adolescents use media that exposes them to sexual material. This study focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively high rates of exposure to sexual material (ESM). A sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years (N = 495) taken from the project EU Kids Online II was examined for predictors of the following: frequency of ESM, place of ESM, and, for online ESM, the types of sites. The only predictors of sporadic ESM were age and excessive Internet use, while age, gender, sensation seeking, and excessive Internet use were predictors of frequent ESM. Age and excessive Internet use were predictors only of ESM online, while age, gender, emotional problems, sensation seeking, and excessive Internet use were predictors of ESM in online and offline environments. High ESM is linked to adolescent vulnerability and also to adolescent psychosexual development. The implications of these findings are discussed in this article.

This special issue of Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research places a particular focus on two research agendas. Firstly, it deals primarily with the online experiences of children and young people from a range of European contexts and, secondly, it does this through reporting research projects that employ qualitative methods approaches. This allows the voices and experiences of young people themselves to be heard.

Lelia Green, David Smahel, Monica Barbovschi (editors)

This article discusses children contacting new people online and going to face to face meetings with these people. Analyses of the EU Kids Online II project data (2009-2011) showed that older children, girls and more frequent, self-confident communicators are more likely to expand their social circle through contacting new people online. Meeting new people online was also related to sensation seeking, risky offline behaviours, emotional problems and problematic internet-related activities, such as exposure to online sexual content and excessive internet use. Despite this activity is affecting only a small number of children, this could be ground for concern.