EU Kids Online Risk Findings: Preview of the Comparative Analysis Report

EU Kids Online has been tracking the online risks faced by children across countries. In some countries, research has produced several quantitative estimates of risk.

• It appears that high risk countries are those that, on the one hand, are new to the internet (Poland, Czech Republic) and, on the other hand, are experienced with the internet (UK, The Netherlands).
• The next riskiest are Iceland, Ireland and Estonia - all small northern European countries.
• The low risk countries, research suggests, are Germany, Norway, Denmark, France and Italy.
• Unfortunately, few quantitative estimates exist for children's experiences of online risk in some countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

Comparing across risks, rather than across countries, research suggests that some risks are more prevalent and/or more homogenous across countries, than others. Our findings show an approximate ordering of online risks to teenagers as follows:

• Giving out personal information: this is most common risk - around half of online teens, with considerable cross-national variation (13% to 91%)
• Seeing pornography: the second most common risk at around 4 in 10 online teens across Europe, but again considerable cross-national variation (25% - 71%)
• Seeing violent or hateful content: the third most common risk at approximately one third of teens and, apart of a figure of 90% among social networking teens in Ireland, a fair degree of consistency across countries
• Being bullied/harassed/stalked: generally around 1 in 5 or 6 teens online, though there is also a group of high risk countries here (Poland, possibly Estonia) and one low risk country - Belgium
• Receiving unwanted sexual comments - only around 1 in 10 teens in Germany, Ireland and Portugal; but closer to 1 in 4 teens in Iceland and Norway (and 1 in 6 in Sweden), rising to 1 in 3 in the UK and 1 in 2 in Poland
• Meeting an online contact offline - the least common but arguably most dangerous risk; there is considerable consistency in the figures across Europe at around 8% (1 in 12) online teens going to such meetings; the exceptions are Poland (23%) and, especially, the Czech Republic (65%).

Interim conclusions (these will be developed in our forthcoming report, due September 2008):

• There are considerable cross-national variations in the incidence of risk.
• There seems to be more cross-national variation in the more common risks, and more homogeneity for the less common risks.
• Poland is a striking outlier, reporting high levels of risk across several categories and being highest for seeing porn, being bullied, receiving unwanted sexual comments, second highest for stranger danger, and third highest for giving out personal information.
• In some countries it is particular risks that are stand out, but they are not high risk across all risks e.g. Ireland for seeing violent and hateful content and giving out personal information, Czech Republic for giving out personalinformation, Estonia for being bullied.
• The only country that is somewhat (comparatively) a low risk outlier on a few items is Italy - on porn, seeing hateful content, although the actual figures are not so striking as the high risk outliers, and this is partly because the population surveyed was much younger (7-11 year olds).

The above findings illustrate the first step in our ongoing work of systematic comparison and interpretation of findings within EU Kids Online. It is one step to identify a pattern, as in the data above, but quite another to interpret these patterns. The report, due in September 2008, will ask:

• Where, and to what extent, are there European commonalities or differences regarding children's online experiences, risks and opportunities?
• What common European responses and patterns exist and what factors explain these? Where there is variation, how is this to be explained?

To explain the observed patterns of findings, researchers in the network are assembling national information concerning, for example:

• The internet (e.g. internet and media content for children, the nature of internet regulation and promotion, factors shaping public discourses about the internet).
• Media coverage of children and the internet (which is also a separate empirical sub-project within the broader project)
• The education system (including internet access and use within schools)
• Wider country-specific factors (e.g. social structures and social change, the role of the state), etc.

One challenge involves looking for ways to seek and manage the 'softer' data, this background information about the countries concerned, in order to explore whether these factors influence findings such as those outlined above.

The IRELAND team is based in the Centre for Social & Educational Research, at the Dublin Institute of Technology and at the National Centre for Technology in Education, Dublin. For find out more information about the Irish Team click here .