Engl. transl.: „Uncle Google knows everything” – results and experiences of a research made among preschool-aged children about digital device and internet usage

In this paper, I present a research what was made among preschool-aged children of their usage of digital devices and the internet. As a result of deeper understanding of the topic, it was specifically important to get information about children’s experiences and possible influences not only from their parents but from children themselves, hence in my research I made an attempt to do so. In my study I briefly describe the relevance of the topic in consideration of the literature then I introduce the methods of my research with special attention to the age group specialities. In addition, I would like to present examples of special tasks of data collection and possibilities of analysing the obtained data.

The most interesting highlight of the paper is the applied methodology. The author emphasizes the importance of direct information gathering from children in such early age and thoroughly discusses the challenges and important considerations of such research designs. Moreover, the data of the research showed that children even in tis early age actively use digital tools and a lot of parents do not mediate and restrict their usage at all, or just on the basic level. Although children mostly watch videos or play games they are well aware of the social and communicational usage forms and are interested in those. "A szülői kontroll megjelenése nem volt jellemző, sőt alig tettek említést erről akár a szülők, akár gyermekeik. Amennyiben igen, az is annyiban merült ki, hogy ne kattintsanak rá egyik vagy másik ikonra az eszközön, ami egyébként a gyerekek válaszai alapján kevésbé tűnt hatékony megoldásnak." (Janek Noémi (2009): „Google-bácsi mindent tud” – eredmények és tapasztalatok az óvodások digitális eszköz- és internethasználatának vizsgálatáról, Gyermeknevelés Vol. 7, Issue 2-3, pp: 95-110, p: 108) "Parental control was not at all widespread, it was rarely mentioned either by the kids or by their parents. If some kind of control was applied it usually meant only the prohibition of clicking on an icon or application, what, by the way, have not seemed very effective according to the answers of the children." (Janek Noémi (2009): „Google-bácsi mindent tud” – eredmények és tapasztalatok az óvodások digitális eszköz- és internethasználatának vizsgálatáról, Gyermeknevelés Vol. 7, Issue 2-3, pp: 95-110, p: 108) - translated by the coder