The EU Kids Online survey
The EU Kids Online survey presents the full findings from a new and unique survey designed and conducted according to rigorous standards by the EU Kids Online network. It was funded by the ECs Safer Internet Programme in order to strengthen the evidence base for policies regarding online safety.
Risk does not necessarily result in harm, as reported by children. 12% of European 9-16 year olds say that they have been bothered or upset by something on the internet.
Comparing across countries, encounters with one or more online risks include around six in ten children in Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, the Czech Republic and Sweden. Lower incidence of risk is found in Portugal, Italy and Turkey. The more children in a country use the internet daily, the more those children have encountered one or more risks. However, more use also brings more opportunities and, no doubt, more benefits.
Parental awareness and mediation
Among those children who have experienced one of these risks, parents often dont realise this. Most parents talk to their children about what they do on the internet (70%) and stay nearby when the child is online (58%). But one in eight parents (13%) seem never to do any of the forms of mediation asked about, according to their children.
Over half of parents also take over positive steps such as suggesting how to behave towards others online (56%) and talking about things that might bother the child (52%), and third have helped their child when something arose in the past (36%).
The use of technical safety tools is relatively low: just over a quarter of parents blocks or filters websites (28%) and/or tracks the websites visited by their child (24%).
Both children and parents consider parental mediation helpful, especially 9-12 year olds. Only around 9% of parents say that they dont want further information on internet safety.
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.
For full details and availability of the project methodology, materials, technical fieldwork report and research ethics, see www.eukidsonline.net .