Engl. transl.: THE STORY BEHIND THE STATISTICS: ON THE DIGITAL COMPETENCES OF ROMANIAN YOUTH

"""After a critical review of the „digital competences” concept (Lankshear, Knobel, 2008), and the argumentation of the importance of studying them in the context of the second level digital divide (Hargittai, 2001), in our study we aimed to analyze the digital competences of Romanian children and adolescents (9–16) as they emerged from the qualitative data of the EU Kids Online project (Smahel, Wright, 2014). Following the theoretical framework of the EU Kids Online project, we assessed the digital competences of Romanian Youth at three levels: as 1. the range of online activities, 2. the attitudes towards the internet and 3. the self-efficacy perception (Sonck et al., 2012). The results of our study confirm in broad lines the statistical evidences of the EU Kids Online survey (Sonck et al., 2011), also offering a contextual and in depth understanding of the phenomenon by showing that the passage from the repetitive and passive consumption of the internet to the more creative activities – which top the „ladder of opportunities” (Livingstone, Haddon, 2009) – requires parental and/or school active mediation (Velicu, Barbovschi, further-coming). It is obvious, that in default of useful advisement, Romanian youth generally acquires their digital competences on their own, by trial and error processes."" (Tőkés & Velicu, 2015, 431)"

"The specificity of the digital skills of Romanian children is that they are left alone in this learning process. Their parents and teachers are in general absent (or very inefficient) in children’s online lives. Therefore, children’s learning happens by trial and error. For some of them, this method works, whereas for others it leads to negative results (e.g., a decrease in their self-esteem, lack of self trust and the withdrawal from the digital universe). digital). [Regarding] the variation in children’s types of digital skills: the technical competencies in boys and older children, whereas the social-digital competencies are more developed in girls and, again, older children. (...) Romanian children are rather consumers or passive participants in the digital world, lacking initiatives in creating digital content. (...) The weak involvement of Romanian parents and teachers in children’s digital lives has a negative impact on children’s digital skills. Moreover, parents’ predominantly restrictive mediation together with parents’ lack of skills and that they display an ambivalent attitude towards digital technology do not lead to an increase in children’s digital skills. On the contrary, by mirroring their parents’ ambivalent attitudes, many times children find a ground for complacency for their lack of skills keeping them away by the willingness to use digital technology and, therefore, by the chance to become more skilled. Moreover, having a low reference in their parents’ low level of digital skills gives them a false impression of their own level of competencies that, again, decreases their willingness to improve it."