EU Kids Online Final Report Published::

Yesterday, EU Kids Online culminated its three year research project and presented its final report at a conference in London.  Amongst the speakers were Tanya Byron and Sonia Livingstone of the LSE, one of the co-authors of the report.

From their final report:

"Children’s use of the internet continues to grow. Striking recent rises are evident among younger children, in countries which have recently entered the EU, and among parents. This last reverses the previous trend for teenagers especially to outstrip adults in internet use. Long-standing gender inequalities may be disappearing, though socio-economic inequalities persist in most countries.

"Across Europe, despite some cross-national variation, available findings suggest that for online teenagers, the rank ordering of risks experienced is fairly similar. Giving out personal information is the most common risky behaviour, followed by encountering pornography online, then by seeing violent or hateful content. Being bullied online comes fourth, followed by receiving unwanted sexual comments. Meeting an online contact offline appears the least common though arguably the most dangerous risk.

"Even though higher status parents are more likely than those of lower socio-economic status to provide their children with access to the internet, it seems that the children from lower status homes are more exposed to risk online. There are also gender differences in risk, with boys more likely to encounter (or create) conduct risks and with girls more affected by content and contact risks."

The report recommends further research into  younger age groups:

"There are some significant gaps in the evidence base. Research priorities include:

• younger children, especially in relation to risk and coping, though
  continually updated research on teenagers is also important;
• emerging contents (especially ‘web 2.0’) and services (especially
  if accessed via mobile, gaming or other platforms);
• understanding children’s developing skills of navigation and
  search, content interpretation and critical evaluation;
• new and challenging risks, such as self-harm, suicide, pro-anorexia,
  drugs, hate/racism, gambling, addiction, illegal downloading, and
  commercial risks (sponsorship, embedded or viral marketing, use
  of personal data, GPS tracking);
• how children (and parents) do and should respond to online risk;
  how to identify particularly vulnerable or ‘at risk’ children within
  the general population;
• evaluations of the effectiveness of technical solutions, parental
  mediation, media literacy, other awareness and safety measures,
  both in terms of the ease of implementation and more importantly
  in terms of their impact on risk reduction; this may vary for
  different groups of children in different cultural contexts."

The report draws attention to the inability of parents to effectively control their children's online behaviour:

"Although no-one doubts that parents are responsible for their children’s safety, evidence suggests that they should not be relied upon as many are unaware or unable to mediate their children’s online activities. Rules and restrictions do not fit well with the ethos of modern parenting, especially in some countries, and it is unclear that parental strategies are effective in reducing children’s exposure to risk or increasing their resilience to cope."

and calls for the strengthening of regulatory frameworks across Europe:

"Self-regulatory provision in improving children’s safety online is to be welcomed and supported, although it is not always transparent or independently evaluated. Children can only be supported in managing the online environment if this is substantially regulated – by law enforcement, interface and website design, search processes, content and service providers, online safety resources, etc – just as they can only be taught to cross a road on which drivers and driving are carefully regulated."

Download :  EU Kids Online: Final Report 

Download the two previous publications from EU Kids Online: What Do We Know about Children’s Use of Online Technologies?

and Comparing children's online opportunities and risks across Europe