Digital play on children’s terms: a child rights approach to designing digital experiences

Children have the right to play (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989) yet their opportunities to play on their own terms (free play) are under pressure, including online. Drawing on an analysis of the qualities of children’s free play across time and cultures, a nationally representative survey of UK 6- to 17-year-olds compared their experiences of play across digital and non-digital contexts to identify design features that enhance or undermine children’s digital play and propose evidence-based recommendations for digital products and services likely to be used by children. Children viewed digital play more critically than non-digital play although both were judged poorly on key qualities of ‘intrinsically-motivated,’ ‘voluntary,’ ‘risk-taking’ and ‘safety.’ Logistical regression analysis shows that rights-respecting design features contribute to children’s enjoyment of digital play more than premium or freemium designs do, thus supporting Playful by Design recommendations that can benefit children

Children as crowbar? Justifying censorship on the grounds of child protection

This article studies how possible it is to use the need to protect vulnerable populations, such as children, as a justification to limit freedom of expression in democratic societies. The research was designed and conducted based on the idea that the regulation of speech and access to content is not only a matter of law and legislative interpretations, but also a question of social norms and values. The study is based on two surveys, one implemented with a representative sample of Norwegians aged 15 and older, the other with a sample of journalists. The results show that for the general population sample, 76% of respondents agreed that the protection of weak groups, such as children, is more important than freedom of expression. The data analysis also shows that gender, education, religious affiliation, trust in media and fear of a terrorist attack are all linked to the likelihood of agreeing with this statement. Women are 66% more likely than men to be in favour of limiting freedom of expression to protect weak groups, such as children. While the numbers of those who agree are lower among journalists, up to 50% of journalists still totally or partially agree that protecting weak groups is more important than freedom of expression. We discuss the policy implications of these results for democratic societies

EU Kids Online 2020: survey results from 19 countries

This report presents the findings from a survey of children aged 9–16 from 19 European countries. The data were collected between autumn 2017 and summer 2019 from 25,101 children by national teams from the EU Kids Online network. A theoretical model and a common methodology to guide this work was developed during four phases of the network’s work, and is discussed at the outset of this report. The main findings from the key topic areas are summarised, which correspond to the factors identified in the theoretical model: Access, Practices and skills, Risks and opportunities, and Social context. Throughout the report, findings are presented according to the countries surveyed, and the gender and age of the children. The survey findings are comparable across countries, and the methodology section presents the common methods followed

Fourteen sequence variants that associate with multiple sclerosis discovered by meta-analysis informed by genetic correlations

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesA meta-analysis of publicly available summary statistics on multiple sclerosis combined with three Nordic multiple sclerosis cohorts (21,079 cases, 371,198 controls) revealed seven sequence variants associating with multiple sclerosis, not reported previously. Using polygenic risk scores based on public summary statistics of variants outside the major histocompatibility complex region we quantified genetic overlap between common autoimmune diseases in Icelanders and identified disease clusters characterized by autoantibody presence/absence. As multiple sclerosis-polygenic risk scores captures the risk of primary biliary cirrhosis and vice versa (P = 1.6 x 10(-7), 4.3 x 10(-9)) we used primary biliary cirrhosis as a proxy-phenotype for multiple sclerosis, the idea being that variants conferring risk of primary biliary cirrhosis have a prior probability of conferring risk of multiple sclerosis. We tested 255 variants forming the primary biliary cirrhosis-polygenic risk score and found seven multiple sclerosis-associating variants not correlated with any previously established multiple sclerosis variants. Most of the variants discovered are close to or within immune-related genes. One is a low-frequency missense variant in TYK2, another is a missense variant in MTHFR that reduces the function of the encoded enzyme affecting methionine metabolism, reported to be dysregulated in multiple sclerosis brain.Swedish Research Council Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation AFA Foundation Swedish Brain Foundatio

Risks and safety on the internet: the perspective of European children. Full findings.

This report, based on the final dataset of the EU Kids Online survey of 9-16 year olds and their parents for all 25 countries, presents the final full findings for EU Kids Online Deliverable D4: Core findings to the European Commission Safer Internet Programme. The most common risky activity reported by children online is communicating with new people not met face-to-face. The second most common risk is exposure to potentially harmful user-generated content. 21% of 11-16 year olds have been exposed to one or more types of potentially harmful usergenerated content: hate (12%), pro-anorexia (10%), self-harm (7%), drug-taking (7%) or suicide (5%)

EU Kids Online II Dataset: A cross-national study of children's use of the Internet and its associated opportunities and risks

In the EU Kids Online II project, data were collected from children and parents via in-home face-to-face interviews in 25 European countries to examine children's Internet use, activities and skills, the risk of harm they encountered, parental awareness, and safety strategies regarding children's Internet use and risks. The project provides comparable cross-national survey data to inform social policies for children's Internet use and protection. Nationally representative survey samples were drawn in each country, with data obtained in a face-to-face interview with 25142 Internet-using children aged 9-16 years together with one of their parents (c. 1000 child/parent pairs per country). Questions were primarily closed-ended, with an open-ended (qualitative) element and with sensitive questions asked of the child in private

EU Kids Online II Dataset: A cross-national study of children's use of the Internet and its associated opportunities and risks

In the EU Kids Online II project, data were collected from children and parents via in-home face-to-face interviews in 25 European countries to examine children's Internet use, activities and skills, the risk of harm they encountered, parental awareness, and safety strategies regarding children's Internet use and risks. The project provides comparable cross-national survey data to inform social policies for children's Internet use and protection. Nationally representative survey samples were drawn in each country, with data obtained in a face-to-face interview with 25142 Internet-using children aged 9-16 years together with one of their parents (c. 1000 child/parent pairs per country). Questions were primarily closed-ended, with an open-ended (qualitative) element and with sensitive questions asked of the child in private

Commonalities and differences: How to learn from international comparisons of children's online behaviour

This article sets out to analyse and critically reflect upon the challenges, procedures, and results of the international comparisons which have been conducted in the framework of “EU Kids Online”, a research consortium composed of scholars and researchers from 21 European countries