EU Kids Online seeks to enhance knowledge of European children's use, risk and safety online

Children’s changing online experiences 
in a longitudinal perspective – an analytic reflection on social and technological

change. This report shows that:

§  Internet diffusion is linked to specific patterns of uses and experiences.

On average, children in “advanced” countries go online earlier, use a broader

range of online services, are more skilled in safer internet and, nevertheless,

are more at risk. §  Society’s appropriation of the internet and mobile 

technologies is far from synchronous across Europe. §  Longitudinal findings

question any assumption of a linear process by which children might become 

increasingly skilled and resilient in their use of online media.

Recently announced

§  European Evidence Database - now extended and updated to contain

information about 1500 studies relating to children’s internet use in Europe;

entries  are categorised by country, date of fieldwork, ages  of children studied,

main findings, methodology and  more; you can search on multiple keywords to

find studies of interest to you, along with English- language summaries of studies

published in other  languages.

§  Review of the European Evidence Database:

 reviews the 1500 studies in the database, 400 of  which are new. The review

reveals key research gaps – in use of the internet by very young children, the

potential and actual benefits of internet use, how  children react to risk experiences and the evaluation 

of safety practices or tools designed to support them. 

§  Hear from the researchers. Here’s a video wall of  researchers from our

network discussing EU Kids Online findings about children’s online experiences

 from 32 countries and in most languages. It’s a lively way to meet our network too. You can also 

find these videos as a YouTube playlist.

§  At the Day of General Discussion on digital media and children’s rights held by

the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Sonia Livingstone presented this

speech. You can read EU Kids Online’s submission to the committee here. 

§  EU Kids Online hosted a panel at the Internet Governance Forum 2014 on

‘Researching children’s rights in a global, digital age’. 

§  Report: Final recommendations for policy. This brings together all EU Kids

Online policy guidance  and evidence-based recommendations in a single

 resource for policymakers. It outlines over 30 actions that children and young

people, parents, educators, governments, awareness-raising and the media,

as well as industry providers can take to make the internet a better and safer

place for children.

 §  Report: Meaning of online problematic situations: 

results of a qualitative investigation in nine European countries. See 

Press release: children are influenced by sensationalist media. The report reveals

a diverse set of ways in which children try  to cope with online risk of harm.