Children’s rapid adoption of the internet and other online technologies, together with the constantly changing media landscape (e.g. more apps and tailored sites, more individualized media use, more mobile internet), pose challenges to researchers concerning the difficult task of adapting and renewing their inventory of research tools in order to identify the risks and opportunities presented by the internet and new media use. EU Kids Online II (2009-11) has offered a unique picture of a wide range of activities undertaken by European children online and the risks and benefits that accompany these activities. The pan-European survey offers valuable information on where, how and what children access online, what risks they encounter, what risks actually bother them, how they cope with problematic content or conduct and how effective parental strategies are in reducing such risks. It also demonstrates that “online opportunities and risks go hand in hand” (Livingstone et al., 2011: 142).
Children’s freely given, detailed accounts of how they understand online risks, and what they perceive as problematic or bothersome, are needed alongside quantitative data that mostly reflect adult perspectives on problematic online content and activities. The recent report, In their own words: What bothers children online? (Livingstone et al., 2013), analysed answers to an open survey question concerning what bothers children online. This arose out of data gathered for the EU Kids Online II study (2009-11). The current phase, EU Kids Online III (2011-14), promises a more thorough qualitative investigation into children’s understanding of online risks and opportunities.
The EU Kids Online Work Package on the qualitative exploration of meaning of online risks for children. In a research field faced with considerable methodological, technical and ethical challenges, a nuanced account of children’s own understandings of risk online has yet to emerge, particularly in a manner that permits comparisons across countries. While qualitative comparative methods remain difficult, this Work Package explores new and creative ways to research the meanings of risks and opportunities online for children, building on the work of EU Kids Online I (Lobe et al., 2007) to experiment directly with methodological innovations (e.g. online interviews) as well as traditional methods (e.g. focus groups).
Work Package 4 is twofold. First, it aims to offer an exploration of innovative, qualitative, potentially comparable cross-national methods that address methodological and ethical issues in researching children’s relation to online risk. Second, a subgroup of European countries collaborated in realizing a cross-national comparable study that reveals qualitative meanings of risk for children across Europe. This project aims to stimulate and support both new and alternative approaches to researching this field, while also generating some focused and comparable qualitative findings. National teams from across the European Union (EU) have worked together to undertake comparable investigative work with children in their countries, encompassing experiences from Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Europe. Additionally, national teams have examined specific aspects of children’s new media use among specific groups, such as socially disadvantaged children.
This report is the first of two deliverables for Work Package 4: ‘Exploring children’s understanding of risk’. It offers detailed accounts of innovative approaches in qualitative research on children’s internet use and their understanding of online risks.
