In their own words: what bothers children online?
Keywords
children
risks
online content
youtube
social network
Publication details
| Issued: | 2013 |
| Language: | English |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Livingstone S.; Kirwil L.; Ponte C.; Staksrud E. |
| Type: | Short report |
| Topics: | Internet usage, practices and engagement; Content-related issues; Risks and harms; Wellbeing; Online safety and policy regulation |
| Sample: | Having reported findings based on standardised questions in the 2010 EU Kids Online survey, we now present answers in children’s own words to the open-ended question included in the survey. In an open-ended part of the survey, we asked children, “What things on the internet would bother people about your age?” 9,636 children (38%) of the 25,142 children surveyed identified one or more online risks that they think bothers people their age on the internet. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Parental digital literacy |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Creating a safe environment for children online; Stepping up awareness and empowerment |
Abstract
Nearly 10,000 children told us about what upsets them and their friends online. Their responses were diverse, revealing a long list of concerns.
Pornography (named by 22% of children who told us of risks) and violent content (18%) top children’s online concerns. Overall, boys appear more bothered by violence than girls, while girls are more concerned with contact-related risks.
Violence receives less public attention than sexual material, but many children are concerned about violent, aggressive or gory online content. They reveal shock and disgust on seeing cruelty, killings, abuse of animals and even the news – since much is real rather than fictional violence, this adds to the depth of children’s reactions.
As children told us, video-sharing websites are often associated with violent and pornographic content, along with a range of other content-related risks. Among the children who linked risks to specific internet platforms, 32% mentioned video-sharing sites such as YouTube, followed by websites (29%), social networking sites (13%) and games (10%).
Children’s mention of risks rises markedly from nine to 12 years old. Younger children are more concerned about content and other risks. As they get older they become more concerned about conduct and contact risks. These are linked in many children’s minds to the use of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Concern about risks is higher among children from ‘high use, high risk’ countries. Policy implications are identified and discussed
Outcome
-54% identified one risk, 31% identified two risks and 15% identified three or more risks.
-58% identified pornographic, violent or other content risks first. With 22% of that being pornographic
-"Video-sharing sites (such as YouTube, Redtube) were the most commonly mentioned – by 32% of children who mentioned any platform in describing online risks that bother their age group" (Livingstone et al., 2013, p. 6)
-Children expressed fear when watching violent content, however, children expressed disgust when watching pornographic content
-"Slightly more girls (41%) than boys (37%) told us about online risks that concern children their age online" (Livingstone et al., 2013, p. 9)
-Boys are more concerned about violent content while girls are more concerned about contact-related and conduct-related risks
-Concern about risk is greater in "high use, high risk" countires
-