Engl. transl.: EU Kids Online Switzerland. Swiss children and adolescents on the Internet: Risks and opportunities

EU Kids Online provides data on the Internet experiences and practices of European children and young people. The focus is on high-risk use, but data on high-opportunity use and media literacy are also presented. For this purpose, 67 school classes with a total of 1026 students aged 9-16 and their teachers were surveyed in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. The results are intended to help make the digital world a safer and more rewarding environment for children and young people. The first part of this report (Chapter 1) includes the results on risks and reflects students' responses on experiences with sexual depictions, sexual messaging and grooming, contact and meeting strangers, problematic user-generated content, excessive Internet use, data protection/privacy, cyberbullying, cyberhate/discrimination, and financial risks. The second part (Chapter 2) includes the results on opportunities and reflects the results on activities and media literacy. The third part (Chapter 3) contains the results on dealing with media topics at school and reflects the teachers' responses on topic setting, the relationship between home and school, teaching media topics, rules for dealing with private devices at school, dealing with cyberbullying and excessive media use at school, and needs for further training. Chapter 4 identifies particularly vulnerable user groups and presents recommendations for prevention.

A substantial proportion (29%) of children and young people who experienced something unpleasant on the internet did not talk about it with anyone. The exchange about problematic experiences is a prerequisite for third parties to avert harm in serious cases. At the same time, it is also an opportunity to talk to others to acquire the skills that can help in overcoming problems. In this context, the large number of victims who confide in a friend should also be mentioned. Peers are therefore the most important point of contact in the event of unpleasant experiences on the Internet. Children and young people should be encouraged to seek advice from adults if their friends have serious problems. In principle, contact with risks increases with more intensive smartphone use. Regardless of age, children and adolescents who use a smartphone more frequently to go online are more likely to develop symptoms of problematic Internet use. This effect is not seen with frequent use of a tablet or a game console. More intensive smartphone use is also particularly associated with excessive financial spending on apps/games. Overall, 9 of the 14 risks investigated show a significant influence of smartphone use. When children and young people receive their smartphones, they should therefore not only be made aware of safety and behavioral rules for dealing with social networks and protecting their devices from unauthorized access. They should also be made aware of the dangers of excessive use and the financial risks associated with the constant availability of devices and services. Professionals should be aware that (intensive) smartphone use is associated with an increase in a whole range of risks. Since the effect is independent of age, this means that as the availability and use of smartphones by younger children increases, so will their contact with risks. Already many young users have a profile on social media or gaming sites. Far too few of them, however, know about the functions for blocking users or reporting content. Even children who are not (yet) on the big, well-known social networks should be made aware of these functions. Particularly in view of the fact that social media are very important for various risks (sexual content, cyberbullying, grooming, cyberhate) and that blocking users is a successful method for many respondents to deal with unpleasant experiences. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)