One in eight children still have upsetting experiences online, new Europewide study shows

More than one in eight children have been bothered or upset by online content, finds a report published today, which was based on interviews with 23,000 young people across Europe. However researchers stressed that the majority of children had no upsetting experiences on the internet and indeed were often comfortable doing things that some adults consider risky.

While 12 per cent of children said they had been bothered or upset by experiences online – including encountering pornography, sexual or bullying messages and potentially harmful user-generated-content – another finding was that their parents were often not aware of the risks to which their children had been exposed. For example, where a child had been bullied online, more than half of parents did not realise this had happened.

The EU Kids Online project based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) also found that children are going online at ever-younger ages – an average of seven in Sweden and eight in several other Northern European countries, including the UK.

Interviewers, who spoke to children aged from nine to 16, found that the youngest found it hardest to cope with disturbing material online. The study recommends targeting spending and advice at younger age groups to reduce risk and enhance the opportunities of the internet.

The research team conducted interviews in 25 European countries for the report, entitled Risks and safety on the internet. The project is funded by the EC Safer Internet Programme and the latest findings are released in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Forum.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania and Sweden were the countries where children were more at risk online, with Italy, Portugal and Turkey showing the lowest risk.