Internet access distributed unequally at European schools
Published on: 20.10.13
Source: Online-Magazin DIGITAL LERNEN
Internet access distributed unequally at European schools
While half of the children in the European Union use the Internet at least one day a week, one out of four children uses it daily or several times a day.
This is one of the results published by the European project "Net Children Go Mobile". The project focusses on post-desktop media ecology which influences the life of children and adolescents in Europe significantly. For that purpose, the empirical study analyses the role of digital mobile media and young users’ strategies to deal with risks of the Internet. This furthermore involved an investigation of the media competence of the examined, and of the effectiveness of measures used by parents and youth workers. It is the aim to conclude key recommendations for later developments in the field of online safety.
The research points out remarkable differences in the results between European countries. On the one hand, access to the Internet increases by age universally; on the other hand, the access in general differs from country to country. Only half of the Romanian children use the Internet once a week, whereas 80 percent of British children use the Internet at least once a week.
A similar incline is recorded in the case of smartphone usage. While most Danish children use their smartphones without restrictions at school, most children in Europe are not allowed to do so. Nearly half of the European children are forbidden to use the smartphone in school. This is especially the case in Italy and Great Britain.
Net Children Go Mobile is funded by the Safer Internet Programme to investigate through quantitative and qualitative methods how the changing conditions of Internet access and usage bring greater, lesser or newer risks to children’s online safety. Participating countries include Denmark, Italy, Romania, the UK, and Ireland (which joined it on a self-funding basis).
For further information, please visit this website: www.netchildrengomobile.eu
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