ESafety and education in the United States: what this means for parents

Tijana Milosevic reflects on her research on eSafety education and asks whether school curricula are sufficiently engaging with young people, or if parents need to supplement what schools offer. Tijana is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her work focuses on cyber bullying, children and media

Protecting Children Online?

This book investigates regulatory and social pressures that social media companies face in the aftermath of high profile cyberbullying incidents. The author’s research evaluates the policies companies develop to protect themselves and users. This includes interviews with NGO and social media company reps in the US and the EU. She triangulates these findings against news, policy reports, evaluations and interviews with e-safety experts. This book raises questions about the legitimacy of expecting companies to balance the tension between free speech and child protection without publicly revealing their decision-making processes. In an environment where e-safety is part of the corporate business model, this book unveils the process through which established social media companies receive less government scrutiny than start-ups. The importance of this research for law and policy argues for an OA edition to ensure the work is widely and globally accessible to scholars and decision makers

Medijska reprezentacija dječje privatnosti u kontekstu upotrebe „pametnih” igračaka i prikupljanja podataka u komercijalne svrhe

The growing use of “smart” toys has made it increasingly important to understand the various privacy implications of their use by children and families. The article is a case study of how the risks to young children’s privacy, posed by the commercial data collection of producers of “smart” toys, were represented in the media. Relying on a content analysis of media coverage in twelve European countries and Australia collected during the Christmas season of 2016/2017, and reporting on a follow-up study in selected countries during the Christmas season of 2017/2018, our article illustrates how the issue of children’s privacy risks was dealt with in a superficial manner, leaving relevant stakeholders without substantive information about the issue; and with minimum representation of children’s voices in the coverage itself.Zbog sve veće upotrebe „pametnih” igračaka sve je važnije razumjeti kakve posljedice njihovo korištenje ima na privatnost djece i obitelji. Ovaj rad predstavlja studiju slučaja o medijskoj reprezentaciji rizika korištenja „pametnih” igračaka i otkrivanja privatnosti djece od strane proizvođača koji prikupljaju komercijalne podatke. Oslanjajući se na analizu sadržaja medijskih objava u dvanaest europskih zemalja i Australiji, prikupljenih za vrijeme božićnih blagdana u sezoni 2016./2017., te na daljnju analizu sadržaja medijskih objava u odabranim zemljama, prikupljenih za vrijeme božićnih blagdana u sezoni 2017./2018., ovaj rad pokazuje kako su teme dječje privatnosti obrađene na površan način, pri čemu dionici ostaju bez nužnih informacija o toj temi, a dječji izvori u samim objavama minimalno su zastupljeni

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

The relevance of cross-national and cross-regional contexts to youth' cyber-bullying involvement

The current paper seeks to investigate the role of regional and national level contexts to explain variations in youths’ cyber-bullying involvement. Cross-national evidence suggests that individual level differences are generally larger than the differences across countries. Hence, it has been suggested that analysis of smaller units of more adjacent cultures (i.e., regions) might yield more explanatory power than national contexts. The present study explores whether, complementary to the national level, smaller, regional level contexts might be relevant in explaining youth involvement in cyber-bullying. Leaning on findings for traditional bullying, selected socio-structural factors (i.e., population density, crime rates, GDP and life expectancy) are employed on the national and on the regional level as contextual predictors for variation in cyber-bullying victimisation rates. Furthermore, the relative contribution of cross-national and cross-regional differences to cyber-bullying victimisation is explored. Cyber-bullying victimisation from the cross-national survey data of the EU Kids Online project was linked with contextual variables obtained from data of the European Social Survey (ESS). Contextual variables were obtained on the national level and, in order to reflect regions, levels 1 or 2 of the “European Union’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics” (NUTS). EU Kids Online and ESS data were linked on 18 countries and 179 NUTS regions. Hierarchical multilevel-modelling analyses adding first regional and then national level contextual predictors for cyberbullying victimisation on the individual level were performed. Against expectations, it was shown that differences between regions accounted for a variance of only 4% and cross-national differences accounted for a variance of 7% in cyber-victimisation. Regional level life expectancy and population density showed a negative while GDP showed a positive and crime rates a marginal positive relation with cyber-victimisation. National level predictors ceased to make a significant contribution. Moreover, while regional predictors did not explain any cross-regional variation they showed to explain 36% of the cross-national differences in cyber-victimisation. The unexpected low regional level variance might indicate that the regions as defined in this study were too large or distal to be reflected in the diversity of individuals’ victimisation responses. Smaller more communal regions or neighbourhoods should be considered in further analyses. Furthermore, regional level predictors were connected with national level differences in cyber-victimisation. A finding indicating that higher level national contexts might have an influence on lower level regional contexts, possibly due to joint practices or policies. Future studies might consider investigating specific national and regional level policies as well as differences in political structures concerning the relative power of regions within countries (i.e., federal or unitary state governments). Overall, these findings indicate that while contextual factors at both national and regional levels do not account for the majority of differences in youth’ cyber-bullying involvement, they are relevant to consider in cross-cultural investigations. Authors’ contact information: Anke Görzig (University of West London): [email protected] Tijana Milosevic (University of Oslo): [email protected] Elisabeth Staksrud (University of Oslo): [email protected]

What changed during COVID-19? How the COVID-19 crisis changed parental perceptions and practices related to children's internet use in five European countries

The COVID-19 lockdown saw an increased reliance on digital technology for children, which might have called for changes in parental mediation practices. The present study aimed at analyzing the extent to which such changes took place, their predictors, and their differences across countries. Data were collected from 2,412 parents and 2,412 children in Austria, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Romania. Results showed that on average 48.3% of parents used mediation practices with the same frequency as before the lockdown, while 38% applied more mediation. Both active and restrictive mediation were predicted by children’s time online, parents’ worry about risks, parents’ technology fatigue, and parent-child involvement. Furthermore, restrictive mediation was predicted by risks encountered online by children, while active mediation was predicted also by children’s excessive Internet use. Differences in parental mediation changes were observed across countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A review and content validation of 10 measurement scales for parental mediation of children’s Internet use

For the last decade, research has shown inconsistent findings about validity of parental mediation scales for children’s Internet use. This inconsistency has manifested itself in at least 10 parental mediation models, which are also inconsistent in contents and definitions, lacking content validity thereof. With the goal of facilitating a consistent framework, this narrative review focuses on the content and factorial validity of 10 measurement scales. A panel of eight experienced researchers in the field of children’s online safety/risks assessed the content validity. Based on this assessment, the present review proposes a trichotomy of restrictive-enabling-observant parental mediation and corresponding conceptual definitions for further research

Parental mediation in pandemic: predictors and relationship with children's digital skills and time spent online in Ireland

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing reliance on digital technology to carry out social, entertainment, work and school activities increased, which may have affected the ways in which parents mediated their children's digital technology use. Given the prominent role that digital technology will have in the future, it is important to investigate parent and child characteristics which impacted parental mediation of children's digital technology use. Therefore, the present study aimed at analysing the frequency of parental mediation strategies (i.e. active and restrictive) during lockdown, their determinants, and how the two strategies affected children's digital skills and time spent online. Data were collected from 461 parent and 461 child participants. Results showed that almost half of parents (46%) practiced parental mediation with the same frequency, while the 42.6% applied it more often. Active mediation was predicted by parental worries about online risks, while restrictive mediation was predicted by time spent online by children, parental worries about online risks, parental negative attitudes towards digital technology and parents' digital skills. Children developed more digital skills when their parents applied higher levels of both active and restrictive mediation, and they spent the lowest amount of time online when their parents employed higher levels of restrictive and lower levels of active mediation. Practical implications for families and children's wellbeing are discussed

Children’s and parents’ worries about online schooling associated with children’s anxiety during lockdown in Ireland

The COVID-19 pandemic has persisted as a worrying time for children who have been using technology for online schooling during lockdown and their parents. This study investigates the extent of children’s and parents’ self-reported worries associated with children’s anxiety during lockdown in Ireland. Data for 461 children and 461 parents were analyzed from the Ireland dataset obtained as part of the Kids’ Digital Lives in COVID-19 Times (KiDiCoTi) international survey. Children reported worries about keeping up with school activities online, getting poor grades, and completing their schoolwork online. Parents reported worries about COVID-19 having a negative influence on their children’s education and their children being exposed to more online risks. Children’s worries about school explained much of the variance of their anxiety to a significant degree, whereas parents’ worries explained that variance to a lesser extent. Implications of these results are discussed in the article

Children’s internet use, self-reported life satisfaction, and parental mediation in Europe: an analysis of the EU kids online dataset

The present research examines how children’s time spent online is associated with their perceived life satisfaction accounting for their age, gender, socio-economic status (SES), emotional problems, country, and family environmental factors. This article is based on the data of the large scale cross-sectional EU Kids Online survey from 16 European countries with nationally representative samples of children aged 9–17 (N = 11,200, Mage = 13.3, SD = 2.36; 50.6% boys, 49.4% girls). The results indicated that the time children spent online appeared to have no considerable negative effect on their self-reported life satisfaction (SRLS). Comparatively, the positive effects of children’s SES and family environment accounted for 43% of the overall 50% of the variance in children’s SRLS scores. Considering that children’s SES alone accounted for 42% of the variance, children’s emotional problems, country of residence, and enabling parental mediation accounted for the remaining 3, 4, and 1% of the variance, respectively. In line with previous studies that urge caution when discussing the negative influence of time spent online on children’s mental health and overall wellbeing, the current findings suggest that social-ecological characteristics and how children use the Internet, need to be examined furthe