Internet and Digital Technology Use among Children and Youth in Serbia EU Kids Online Survey Results, 2018

Internet access  Most of the surveyed children and teens from Serbia (86%) use the Internet on a daily basis, which is similar to findings from other European countries that participated in this research (e.g. Norway, Italy). Two-thirds (65%) of the youngest respondents from the sample (ages 9-10) and almost all students (98%) in the oldest age group (ages 15-17), according to their own statements, access the Internet daily from a mobile / smart phone.  Kids begin to use the Internet at a young age, in a personalized way (from their own, mobile devices) without proper parental/caregiver insight into their activities, which has important policy and practice implications. Time and activities on the Internet  On average, interviewed students spend more than three hours a day on the Internet, the oldest age group reports up to four and a half hours. More than a fifth of students, according to their own statements, spend up to seven hours a day on weekends, while two-thirds spend between four and seven hours.  Given the multiple functions that digital devices have in the lives of today's youth, time as such is not necessarily an indicator of problematic use. In fact, rather than the amount of time, the quality of the time, or the type of Internet activity, is much more important. According to the findings of this, as well as several previous studies conducted on a national sample, our students use the Internet mainly for leisure (watching videos and listening to music), communicating with family and friends, playing video games and visiting social networking sites.  40% of students use the Internet for school assignments at least once a week; 88% of students say they have never used the Internet to join a campaign or sign a petition, and 79% have never discussed political or social issues online. Nearly two-thirds of children say they never use the Internet for creative purposes, to share content they have created.  More than two-thirds of children and young people (73%) say they have a profile on some social networking or gaming platform; of these, 42% of 9-10-year olds as well as 72% of 11-12-year olds say they have a profile, although the minimum age set by social networking sites is usually 13 years. In addition to the types of activities undertaken online, we also consider the negative consequences associated with Internet use. Thus, about a third of the surveyed students report to have problems due to the amount of time they spend online or getting into conflicts with family or friends. Slightly less than half of the students say they try yet fail to spend less time on the Internet and neglect socializing and responsibilities (e.g. school assignments), feeling unwell when unable to be on the Internet, while nearly one fifth neglect basic biological needs (e.g. need for food, sleep). Students’ digital skills  Students from Serbia rate their digital literacy skills as above average. The average score for the five groups of digital skills ranges from 6.7 to 8.6 (on a scale of 1 to 10). The lowest average score is in the field of digital content creation skills (6.7), followed by information and information retrieval skills (7.7), mobile device use skills (8.0), operational skills (8.6), while the highest average score is on social skills (9.2).12  When it comes to information, digital content creation and mobile device skills, gender differences have been identified, with male students being more skilful, according to their self-assessment. Students who spend more time online evaluate their digital skills as more developed.  About half of the younger and about twothirds of the older students know how to make a video or music and post it online. Fewer children say they know how to modify content created and uploaded by others (one fifth of younger and less than a half of older students).  Assessment of one's digital skills correlates positively with age, with one exception, which is the use of a programming language (e.g. Scratch, Python, C ++). This is the only skill in which younger students feel more competent than older ones.  Approximately half of students ages 9-12 do not know how to change their privacy settings on social networking sites (a similar percentage of these students do not use social networking sites), while more than a third of students of this age do not know how to save a picture they find on the Internet. However, almost all older students, in their own estimation, know how to set up privacy on social networking sites or save a picture they found online.  While 92% of students, by their own assessment, know how to install an application on a mobile phone, just over half (53%) say they know how to keep track of the cost of using the application.  72% of students strongly or partially agree with the statement that it is easy for them to verify if some of the information they have found on the Internet is true; and 68% find it easy to tell if they can trust a piece of information they find on the Internet. Upsetting experiences and cyberbullying  Every third student in the sample was bothered by something online in the past year. In such situations, almost a quarter of students did not talk to anyone about their problem, ignored the problem thinking that it would go away by itself, or closed the window or application, and nearly a third blocked the harasser. The number of children who frequently had disturbing experiences was the highest in the age group of 13-14 years.  16% of students experienced cyberbullying, while 15% experienced bullying in person. Students are more likely to admit to being victims than to have perpetrated digital bullying themselves. A third of the students surveyed were victims and perpetrators at the same time. Consistently with previous findings on a nationally representative sample about face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying –we find that the two tend to happen hand in hand. Risky behaviour on the Internet and contacts with strangers  A number of students (ranging from 13% to 51%, depending on the type of behaviour), engaged in some other type of risky behaviour online. Most often, this involved sharing personal information, adding strangers on social media and otherwise making contact with strangers whom they may later meet offline, or hiding behind a false identity.  Among the students surveyed, one quarter of them (slightly more boys than girls) met in person someone they had first met online. As one can see from the findings, these behaviours are not necessarily harmful and they can be quite benign, but they constitute risks.13 Exposure to sexual content  In the sample of surveyed students (ages 9-17), every other student encountered sexual content in the past year, significantly more frequently in digital than in print media. Exposure to this type of content is more prevalent among older students, so threequarters of high school students report to have had this type of experience, compared to one tenth of children of younger school age.  Most respondents found sexual content in a number of different sources, namely television, magazines or books, and on the Internet.  Almost a third of the children and young people aged 11-17 visited a pornographic website (adult or X-rated site) over the course of the past year. These websites were accessed by the majority of young people in the age group of 15-17 years (two thirds of male and one quarter of female students, including 43% male and 6% of female students who visited them daily). Exposure to harmful content on the Internet  The percentage of students ages 11-17 who were exposed to various types of harmful content on the Internet varied between 30% and 50%. Exposure to harmful content is related to age and gender and is more common in older as well as in female students.  As many as three-quarters (71%) of students ages 14-17 years and 56% of male students saw images of blood and violence against other persons or animals on the Internet. About 50% of students encountered hate messages online; 59% of female students and 54% of male students aged 14-17 saw selfharming content; 57% of female students and 38% of male students of the same age saw content or discussions about ways to be very thin, or content that encourages anorexic and bulimic behaviours (pro-ana and pro-mia content); 57% of female and 47% of male students saw content showing or discussing someone else's drug use experience. 44% of girls and 36% of boys of the same age have seen the way suicide can be committed online. Parents’/caregivers’ mediation  The younger the children, the more the adults are expected to mediate their use of digital technology and the Internet. When they mediate, it is primarily aimed at protecting safety and preventing negative behaviour and much less at meaningful use of digital technology.  Less than half (44%) of the surveyed students (ages 9-17) state that their parents often explain to them how to use the Internet safely, a slightly smaller percentage (41%) of those get help from parents when something bothers them on the Internet, while just over a third (35%) of the students surveyed talk with parents about what they do online. Less than a third of students (29%) say they are often encouraged by their parents to research and learn online, but 30% say they never or rarely do so. Parents are more aware and more likely to mediate girls' than boys’ activities.  Even in the younger age group (9-12), more than half of the students surveyed often help parents when parents are unable to do something on the Internet, while in the older age group (13-17), three quarters of the male students (more often girls than boys) do it.  Parents in Serbia rarely use technical measures of protection, that is, “parental controls”, to ensure the safety of children online (less than a fifth of the students surveyed reports this), much less often than parents in other countries.14 Teachers’ and peers’ mediation  Judging from students' responses, teachers do not encourage them enough to use the Internet in a meaningful way, the same as in the case of parents. Less than a third of the surveyed students (28%) said that teachers at school often encouraged them to explore and learn using digital devices, 32% said that teachers did this occasionally, and as many as 30% said that teachers at school never or almost never encourage them to use digital technology in this way.  Generally, a small percentage of teachers often talk to their students about what they do on the Internet (reported by a dozen students), with more than a half saying that teachers never or almost never do so.  Only 3% of the surveyed students sought support from their teachers after they experienced something upsetting online.  Only one fifth of the surveyed students are encouraged by peers to research and learn online. The same number of students receive help from their peers when they are troubled by something on the Internet or receive instruction from the peers on how to use the Internet safely (the percentage is higher in the older age group than in the younger age group).  However, after a negative online experience, almost half of the students say they talk to a friend or girlfriend their age.

Two-thirds (65%) of the youngest respondents from the sample (ages 9-10) and almost all students (98%) in the oldest age group (ages 15-17), according to their own statements, access the Internet daily from a mobile / smart phone. On average, interviewed students spend more than three hours a day on the Internet, the oldest age group reports up to four and a half hours. More than a fifth of students, according to their own statements, spend up to seven hours a day on weekends, while two-thirds spend between four and seven hours. More than two-thirds of children and young people (73%) say they have a profile on some social networking or gaming platform; of these, 42% of 9-10-year olds as well as 72% of 11-12-year olds say they have a profile, although the minimum age set by social networking sites is usually 13 years. Students from Serbia rate their digital literacy skills as above average. Every third student in the sample was bothered by something online in the past year. In such situations, almost a quarter of students did not talk to anyone about their problem, ignored the problem thinking that it would go away by itself, or closed the window or application, and nearly a third blocked the harasser. A number of students (ranging from 13% to 51%, depending on the type of behaviour), engaged in some other type of risky behaviour online. Most often, this involved sharing personal information, adding strangers on social media and otherwise making contact with strangers whom they may later meet offline, or hiding behind a false identity. The percentage of students ages 11-17 who were exposed to various types of harmful content on the Internet varied between 30% and 50%. Exposure to harmful content is related to age and gender and is more common in older as well as in female students. Judging from students' responses, teachers do not encourage them enough to use the Internet in a meaningful way, the same as in the case of parents.