Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technology - A qualitative study across Europe

It only takes witnessing a few interactions within modern western families to realize how much the experience of childhood has changed. The change comes from different winds blowing on today’s families’ time but certainly, the use of digital technologies peaks out and its impacts on childhood, education, learning and safety has been at question over the last years. Since a very early age, video watching and gaming on a variety of internet-connected devices are among children's favourite activities. Parents see digital technologies as positive and unavoidable, if not necessary, but at the same time, find managing their use challenging. They perceive digital technologies as something that needs to be carefully regulated and controlled. They would appreciate advice on fostering children’s online skills and safety. The document reports on results of a cross-national analysis building on data coming from 234 family interviews with both children and parents, carried out from September 2014 until April 2017 in 21 countries. It exposes the key findings regarding first children’s usage, perceptions of the digital technologies and their digital skills in the home context but also on parents’ perceptions, attitudes, and strategies. Beside the cross-national analysis, a dedicated section provides contextualized snapshots of the study results at national level. It then takes a close up on 38 families in seven countries in which researchers came for a second interview distant of one year in which they focused on monitoring change of context, children and parents’ perceptions, attitudes, and strategies over time. Conclusion reflect on the potential benefits, risks and consequences associated with their (online) interactions with digital technologies and provide recommendations to policymakers, industry, parents and carers.

" Young children generally have a varied and balanced life integrating sports, outdoor play and creative activities in which digital activities play only one part. Nonetheless, they are daily consumers of audiovisual media services (AVMS) products, (smart) TV, video on demand (VOD) and games, through smartphones, tablets, video-game consoles, laptop and more rarely PC’s. Most popular are small screens (although smart TV is striking back) that allow mobility and have 24/7 availability, ownership and autonomy of choice and use. • Children have their first contact with digital technologies and screens at a very early age (below 2), usually through their parents’ devices, which are not tailored for them in the first place. • Young children learn very quickly how to interact with digital devices by observing the behaviour of adults and older children. [...] • For young children, digital technology is useful for four main purposes: (1) leisure & entertainment; (2) information and learning; (3) creation and (4) communication. [...] • Across Europe, young children learn to interact with digital technology and build their digital skills and competences mainly in the home context, influenced by: (1) the type of digital devices and content they have access to; (2) their own interests and needs; and (3) the level and typology of support and engagement they can benefit from their parents (Chaudron et al., 2018, pp.15 - 16)