Digital lives

Kids go online at an increasingly young age. On average, young people aged 9 to 16 first go online around the age of 9, with younger children saying they were 7, and older ones saying they were 11 at first use. While the age for first internet use varies from one country to another, there is a tendency to go on the internet earlier in Nordic countries than in Mediterranean ones.

In spite of popular media stories of young people with hundreds of contacts, the EU Kids Online report shows that only about 10% report having more than 300 contacts on their social networking profile. Half of young people have fewer than 50 contacts and about a quarter have less than 10. Younger children tend to have fewer contacts than teenagers.

All social networking sites allow users to adjust privacy settings, which means that young people can control what bits of information are available and to whom. Most of them have learned that it is not a good idea to post their address or phone number on their profile: only one teenager in seven reports having posted such information.

We get instant updates about our friends’ lives through newsfeeds or Twitter, without the need to reciprocate, and most of the information we can think of is readily available online. Once a scarce commodity, information is available to anyone, with minimum costs and little effort.

In relation to cyberbullying, the latest studies show that only about one teenager in 20 has been the target of nasty or hurtful messages online, and even fewer have sent such messages to others. Two thirds of those who received bullying messages were fairly or very upset, especially younger children.

Half of European teenagers aged 11-16 report that they find it easier to be themselves on the internet than when with other people face to face. However, only one in six openly admits to pretending to be a different kind of person online than they really are.

A quarter of teenagers say that they are in touch with people that they met online in the first place (and with no other connection to their lives). The older they are, the more likely this is to happen. However, nearly 90% of young people communicate online with people they already know in person in real life.

Young people lying about their age to get a social networking profile is said to be common practice. Every sixth teenager has posted an incorrect age in their profile and it is safe to assume that young people usually pretend to be older rather than younger.

Recent research reveals that among 9-16 year olds, one in seven have, in the past 12 months, seen images online that are “obviously sexual – for example, showing people naked or people having sex.” Among them, a third said they were bothered by the experience and one in six was either fairly or very upset by what they saw.

While it has been proved that virtual worlds and game playing are important ways to extend one’s social circle, playing online games is still predominantly a boys’ activity. Over a quarter of teenagers use virtual worlds, game playing and chatrooms to communicate with people that they have no other connection to in the ‘real world’. A significant majority of them are boys.

Young people engage in a wide range of potentially beneficial activities online. The most frequent online activity of 9-16 year olds is using the Internet for school work (85%). Other frequently-mentioned online activities are playing games, watching video clips and instant messaging. Fewer post images or messages for others to share, use a webcam, file-sharing sites or blogs.

Two thirds of young people think that their parents know a lot or quite a bit about their Internet use. Regarding the desirable level of parental involvement, over half of teenagers think that parents’ interference with their activities limits what they do online.

The EU Kids Online report reveals that about 60% of 9-16 year olds have a social networking profile and the likelihood of having one increases with age. Young people are aware of the importance of protecting their private information online, with nearly half of them keeping their profile private and visible to their friends only. Only a quarter of young people have a public profile, visible to anyone.

GoSupermodel and Stardoll are popular online games designed around the fashion doll concept whereby users (mostly young girls) can dress up their doll avatars or change their make-up and body. They can also participate in interactive and social activities, depending on their type of account, free or paying. The sites feature fashion magazines, social clubs, virtual shops, virtual decorating and instant messaging services.

The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is an age rating system established to help parents choose age-appropriate video games for their children. While half of games are suitable for players of all ages, there are many that are not suitable for younger children or teenagers and a minority are made for adults only. The PEGI system is used throughout Europe thanks to its harmonized game rating system.

According to social researchers, the ‘likes’ on a social networking site work like a digital handshake. Comments and ‘likes’ are a form of social currency that help sustain a relationship; likewise, receiving and giving comments are a form of mutual recognition and support. Posting comments on your friends’ walls gets you noticed by their circle of friends, thus giving you the possibility of extending your own.

The Internet provides tools for people to get informed about, and get involved in, causes and movements they support. From human rights campaigns to civil issues, people can use the power of online communities to start and organize collective offline actions. The recent Jasmine revolution in Tunisia is an excellent example of this.

There is an ongoing debate about the actual value of media multitasking. It has been claimed by some that media multitasking, that is the simultaneous use of several media, does not allow people to fully engage in any of the activities they are doing. Others say that multitasking is both needed and efficient in the technology-saturated environment in which young people live today.

We live in a society flooded with massive amounts of information. In 2005, mankind created 150 billion gigabytes of data. This is why it has become increasingly difficult to sort and extract useful information. This can sometimes mean missing out on something crucial, like a deadline for applying to university.

Some young people feel more comfortable discussing private issues online than face to face. A third of teenagers say that they talk about private things online which they do not discuss face to face and nearly half of them talk about different things on the Internet than in face to face situations.

Early research about the effects of Internet on people’s lives revealed that instead of bringing people together, extensive online communication actually made them lonelier and more isolated. On the contrary, more recent findings emphasise the positive effects on social involvement and well-being. Still, it seems that those who benefit most are people that already communicate a lot and enjoy greater social support.

The digital divide refers to the gap between people in terms of access and use of information technology. Socioeconomic status, income, educational level and race are among the main factors associated with technological development. The global digital divide refers to inequalities between countries and regions of the world in relation to technological advance.

In countries like the UK or US, many schools have banned students from using social networking sites out of fear that they would be exposed to privacy-related risks. Others simply claim that these sites, just like mobile phones, distract pupils from learning activities. Midway solutions propose school-based social networking tools.

According to a study published in the Nature journal, Wikipedia is just as good a source of scientific information as Encyclopedia Britannica. The journal analysed a series of articles from both sources through a blind peer review process that revealed an average of 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia. Wikipedia has maintained the quality of its articles through volunteers who ensure cleaning and accuracy.

Video-sharing sites like YouTube enable users to be in complete control of what they watch and when they watch it. Users can decide what is popular and what they are going to share. Items that reach millions of hits are termed ‘viral’. According to the site’s statistics, hundreds of millions of users from all around the world are uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily, with over 24 hours of video uploaded every minute.

The rise of disco music, the hippie culture and the landing on the moon, the first personal computers and floppy disks - these were some of the things happening when the parents of today’s teenagers were themselves teenagers. They had VSH tapes instead of DVDs and Blu-ray disks and the most common way to get in touch with somebody was to pick up the phone at home or to meet them in person.

Parents take different measures to ensure their child’s safety online. The majority talk to them about their online activities or stay nearby when the child is online. Half of parents choose to monitor their child’s activities on the Internet and a quarter track the websites visited by the child. However, only a few young people would like their parents to do less.