Risky experiences for children online:Charting European research on children

and the internet

Leslie Haddon and Sonia Livingstone

ICA ConferenceMontreal May 21st-26th 2008

The Project

• 21 countries

• 3 years

• Funded by the EC’s Safer Internet Plus Programme

• Evaluating European research on children’s experiences of the Internet

The Project• Overall aim of improving ability to manage

cross-national comparisons

• Work in-progress

• Emphasis on children/youth, risks and opportunities

Charting a field of study• Step 1: a repository, a searchable

database, containing the details of projects

• 235 projects in January 2007 (18 countries at that point in time)

• The repository is still being updated

Spread of studies

Spread of studies

Research is unevenly spread across Europe

• partly because mass diffusion of the internet

• partly because of unevenness in research funding.

Spread of studies

• Larger countries support more empirical research than smaller countries

• BUT In some countries, even if the internet and internet studies is well established, the issue of children and risk remains a recent addition to the public policy agenda.

Multinational comparative studies

• ‘Children and Their Changing Media Environment’ 1998-9 (old and new media, but nothing on risks)

• SAFT 2003, 2006

• Eurobarometer 2003, 2004

• Mediappro 2005

Quality of what is reported• The majority (95%) of research in this field

consists of single-nation studies. • Of these roughly 10% published in an academic

form• Many studies are descriptive (lacking theoretical

framework/critical analysis)• 12% of the empirical studies are publicly available

only in summary form (lack details of methods)

Disciplines• Much of the research is conducted by departments

of education, information or psychology• Sometimes difficult to tell the discipline

• High proportion of proportion are market-research studies - i.e. tried-and-tested questions rather than a disciplinary framework

Quality vs. quantitative• The majority of research is quantitative

(frequency and distribution of activities)

• Less research is qualitative or multi-method• We have less knowledge of children’s own

experiences or perceptions or how online activities fit into their everyday lives.

Funding sources

• Research is mainly funded by national governments

• Commercial companies, research institutes and regulators are sometimes significant funders

Funder and topic• Government sources: wide range of research

topics• Academic research: more the contexts and

consequences of online use• Commercial companies: more the negative than

the positive dimensions of use• Regulators and charities: mainly focus on risk.

Age of children researched• The majority of research on children’s use of the

internet is conducted on teenagers• Rough correlation: the proportion of young people

using the internet and the amount of research on them. BUT

• a) use among younger children is growing fast• b) they may be more vulnerable in terms of

maturity coping strategies.

Topics researched (children)

• The most researched topics: online usage, followed by access and then interest and activities

Topics researched (children)

• Little research on why some children lack access

• Little research on the newest kinds of use, such as blogging and podcasting – research lags behind technology development

Topics researched (children)Research included:• children’s online skills• social networking • gender differences • playing online games• children’s concerns and frustrations • identity play

Topics researched (children)Least frequent topics• civic and political participation • interpreting online content• creating online content• online learning • seeking advice online• search strategies

Topics researched (children)

• In general there is a lack of empirical research on media literacy: the interpretation, creation and critique of online content

Topics researched (Parents)

• Little research on parents’ experiences of the internet and how they mediate their children’s experiences

• Most common topic: parental styles of regulating their children’s internet use

Typology of risks

Commercial Aggressive Sexual Values

Content

Child as recipient

Adverts, spam, sponsorship, personal info

Violent/ hateful content

Pornographic or unwelcome sexual content

Bias, racist, misleading info/ ‘advice’

Contact

Child as participant

Tracking/ harvesting personal info

Being bullied, harassed or stalked

Meeting strangers, being groomed

Self-harm, unwelcome persuasion

Conduct

Child as actor

Illegal downloading, hacking

Bullying or harassing another

Creating and uploading porn material

Providing misleading info/advice

Risk topics

• Most researched risks: content-related

• Least researched area: commercialism

• Most research is mapping

• Little on why children take risks

• Little on social consequences of risk-taking

Conclusions 1

• Gaps in research: e.g young children, other platforms

• most studies examine the nature and use of websites rather than more interactive, peer-to-peer, multi-user applications (i.e. web 1.0 rather than web 2.0)

Conclusions (risks) 2

• Content and contact risks is lacking in some countries, in others it needs deepening

• There needs to be more on commercial risks

• Relatively little research on how children (or parents) cope with online risk (coping strategies), or long term effects of exposure to risk

Conclusions (risks) 3

• Need research on the effectiveness of parental mediation and children’s responses to such regulation

Conclusions 4• Time-sensitivity: even where substantial

amounts of research exist, the findings must be regularly updated

• More multi-national research• More longitudinal studies• Multiple theoretical perspectives and

multiple methods

Conclusions 5

• Scope for improving the quality, rigour and public accessibility of research evidence

• More research relating online activities and risks to children's lives offline

• More reflecting on children and young people’s own agenda of concerns

Reports

• Charting report and a methodological review are already available

• www.eukidsonline.net

• Comparative analysis due in the autumn 2008

• Social shaping research due in autumn 2009