Risky experiences for children online: charting European research on children and the Internet

Children's online experience, especially the risks to which they might be exposed, is an increasingly important policy and research concern. This article reports an analysis of the amount, nature and range of empirical research concerning children's online experiences across 18 European countries. Research teams in each country have collaborated, as part of the 'EU Kids Online' network, to identify, code and compare studies. In all, 235 studies were identified and coded in a publicly accessible data repository. All countries had some available evidence regarding children's online risky experiences, with strengths mainly in relation to research into access and use; several countries were found to have a richer evidence base encompassing research into online learning, literacy, participation, parental mediation and so forth. Regarding risks, more research focused on potentially harmful content than on risky forms of contact. Key research gaps included research on younger children, into mobile online platforms, and into certain types of online risk. The article concludes by observing the challenges facing researchers in this field, including the time-sensitivity of research that quickly dates, the difficulty of tailoring research to meet the needs of a demanding policy agenda, the complexity of designing projects that recognise the contextual and contingent factors that mediate children's online activities, and the ethical considerations that apply when asking children about private, transgressive or upsetting experiences

Internet, children and youth

In late modernity, ‘self-actualisation is understood in terms of a balance between opportunity and risk’ (Giddens, 1991: 78). For the first generation to fully experience the internet in industrialised countries, negotiating this balance has fast become integral to growing up. Framing this is a story of ‘great expectations’, circulated among both parents and children, and strongly fostered by governments and business. But what fuels these expectations? Are they being realised? What are the real benefits of using the internet? Or the risks

Blending student technology experiences in formal and informal learning

In this article, we discuss the importance of recognizing students\u27 technology-enhanced informal learning experiences and develop pedagogies to connect students\u27 formal and informal learning experiences, in order to meet the demands of the knowledge society. The Mobile-Blended Collaborative Learning model is proposed as a framework to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning and blend them together to form a portable, flexible, collaborative and creative learning environment. Using this model, three categories of mobile application tools, namely tools for collaboration, tools for coordination and tools for communication, have been identified as pertinent in blending formal and informal learning, and they can be connected seamlessly to provide an effective learning mechanism to support the learning process