Eurobarometer 2005 Elisabeth Staksrud European Commission Expert on New media and public attitudes H

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Eurobarometer 2005Elisabeth Staksrud European
Commission Expert on New media and public
attitudesHamburg 06.12.2006
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Who am I?

• Project Director New Media Norwegian Media
  Authority (prev. Norwegian Board of Film
  Classification)
• Degree in Media and Communication
• Initiated and coordinated the SAFT project (from
  2002)
• From 2004 training coordinator for the Europan
  Awareness Network and European Commissions
  expert on Internet and public opinion
• Appointed member of the Norwegian Governments
  Internet Advisory Board
• Industry appointed member of the Norwegian
  Internet Self regulation Board
• Currently research fellow at the Dept. of M C
  at University of Oslo
• Love to watch TV

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Survey information

• The Eurobarometer survey presents the attitudes
  of European Union citizens towards illegal and
  harmful content on the Internet and their
  knowledge of how to protect their children
  against it. It covers 25 Member states, candidate
  and acceding countries and was conducted in
  December 2005.
• The survey was commissioned by the
  Directorate-General Information Society and Media
  and was carried out by TNS Opinion Social, a
  consortium formed by TNS and EOS Gallup Europe

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Survey information

• Aim Map out use of Internet in Europe general
  and among children particularily.
• Gather information on childrens potential access
  to harmful or illegal content on the Internet.
• Map out parental control over the use of Internet
  and awareness level and information about safe
  use
• Target/number of Interviews 3 selections
• General European public above 15 years (29 248
  respondents representing 442 620 588 Europeans)
• Caretakers with children aged 17 and under in
  their household (7560 respondents).
• Further selection of caretakers claiming that
  child uses Internet (3791 respondents)
• Method Face-to-Face interviews in peoples homes
  in national language. Addresses selected random
  route procedures
• Fieldwork period December 2005 January 2006

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Two important premisses to remember when reading
the results

• It is not parents, but caretakers that respond
  on behalf of themselves and children in the
  household. Status of caretaker is unknown.
• Results regarding childrens use are based on
  parental assessment and must not be confused
  with what children actually do or how much access
  they have

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What I will do

• Summarize main findings from Eurobarometer 2005
  with a special emphasis on German results when
  relevant
• Parental self assessment and knowledge
• Parental assessment of their childrens access
  and usage
• Try to give some overall strategic awareness
  advice by looking at research on children

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Use of Internet in EU by respondents'
socio-demographic characteristics
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Using the Internet self-assessed expertise
40 of all men regard themselves as advanced or
expert users!
Women rate themselves just above retired people,
but below unemployed and teens
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(No Transcript)
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Do you know where or to whom you can report
illegal content you see on the Internet?
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Yes! I know where or to whom you can report
illegal content you se on the Internet (by
country)

• Average EU25 level is 52
• Germany is one of the top four countries on
  awareness about illegal content
• Awareness level has significantly increased since
  2003 in the 15 old member states, from 41 til
  54 on average.

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Who do they know they can report to?

• The European public associates illegal content
  with the police!
• Half of the European public does not recognize
  that same rules apply (illegal is illegal) when
  you add technology

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(No Transcript)
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The use of Internet among children (by age
brackets)
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Internet usage among children by country
(compared to the previous surveys)
German children are in the low-range in Europe
when it comes to using Internet (according to
their parents).
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of parents declaring that child uses Internet
at home and at school
Home is the most common place in nearly all of
the old Member States. Home gives the
possibility of multiple and flexible access.
This pattern also applies to Germany usage at
home is more common than usage schools (39 vs.
26). This is expected to change fast, with
increased home usage.
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(No Transcript)
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of children owning a mobile phone (by age
brackets)
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Use of Internet among children and ownership of
cell phones (by age brackets and gender)

Average level of Internet use in E25, people
above 15 years
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Use of the Internet compared to owning a mobile
phone by country
In some mid/low Internet penetration countries,
like Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Greece, mobile
penetration among children already exceeds
Internet access.
Challenge the future is mobile What implications
will this have for our safety work in hotlines
and awareness nodes. What messages to send when
technology varies? A mobile phone is also an
Internet access device, a publication tool and a
credit card, a GPS sender- and a phone! And it
is always on.
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Parental control and regulation
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Setting rules for the Internet TV RULES!
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Media usage rules set by German parents
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Top Internet rules set by German parents

• Rules regarding time allowed to spent on the
  Internet (70)
• Not allowed to give out any personal
  information/privacy (67)
• Not to allowed to visit some websites/indecency
  (66)

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Sitting with children when they are online
All types of parents claim to sit with their
children, experts or not experts
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Same question from SAFT Norway 2006 asked both
parents and childrenQ34.1 (C) When I am on the
Internet at home, my parents sit with me while I
surf...Q20 (P) How often do you sit with your
child while he/she is on the Internet?
Filter The child uses the Internet
Where did the 65 parents go?


her
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• How to create awareness?
• listen to the children, not the parents!

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The home is the number one place of Internet use,
connecting children through PCs, Xboxes, -
several times a day
Q14 Do you have an Internet connection at home?
Filter Uses PC at home, 94 - of those 4 are
not connected

• Significant ? At my own PC / computer
• Boys
• 13-16 yrs
• Parents with university degree
• Significant ? At someone elses computer
• Girls
• Middle child
• Comes home to an empty house

her
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Q80 Where have you learned the MOST about the
Internet?
Children have taught themselves about the
Internet and that has implications for their
user patterns and communication with parents.

• Since 2003
• In Norway the parents play a bigger role.
• In Ireland teachers have less influence.

Filter Use Internet
test
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Parents believe that the Internet web pages
with information on travel, banking and
news.Children have sophisticated user patterns
games being the number one activity.
Q19 What kind of things do you do on the
Internet?

Filter Uses the Internet, 96
her
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Q19 (C) What kind of things do you do on the
Internet? PromptedQ15 (P) As far as you know,
what does your child use the Internet for?
Unprompted
Parents believe that children use Internet the
same way they do for web pages with information
on travel, banking and news.When parents talk to
children about the Internet they really mean
the web
BTW children have on average 2,6 more e-mail
accounts than their parents are aware of.
Filter The child uses the Internet

her
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The difference in user patterns have implications
E.g. it has made children more restrictive
regarding submitting personal information
online.
Filter Use Internet
Q37 Information you would give about yourself
over the Internet to win a prize in a contest

• Since 2003
• In both countries the results show that the
  children are more cautious in giving out
  information.

test
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Q38 (C) What information about yourself would
you giveover the Internet to win a prize in a
contest? YesQ44 (P) Would you allow your child
to submit the following personal information on
web-sites directed towards children? Yes
and parents more liberal in allowing children to
submit personal information


Filter The child uses the Internet
her
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Observations and implications for awareness work

• Children start using Internet and other
  electronic media before school age
• Children have sophisticated user patterns
  parents dont
• Parents see Internet and other electronic devices
  as TECHNOLOGY, children see them as NATURAL
• The traditional family media culture was
  different for Internet introduction than other
  mass media
• Children can apply old rules for new technology
  on- vs. off-line is not a problematic divide
• Children feel this is their area they have
  taught themselves, use it for communication with
  each other and have differnt user patterns and
  interests than adults

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Observations for the German situation

• Children start using the Internet and mobile
  phones when they are very young and their start
  up age will continue to drop
• Their prime use arena will be the home
• German parents may not feel this is applicable to
  them, and that the school will teach children
  what they need to know
• Safe, competent and critical behaviour can be
  learned early
• German parents should ask their children if the
  are and what they do on the Internet not to
  control, but to start a dialogue
• Focus on young children both towards parents, via
  schools and directly is vital to cope with
  current and future challenges

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The Future Safety Challenges

• Privacy
• Critical competence
• Bullying
• Commercial issues and costs

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My strategy and advice

• Give non technological advice
• Focus on cross-platform applicable advice
• Focus on user empowerment
• General issues like privacy, source criticism,
  self confidence and worth, - directly to the
  children and young people
• Media Literacy not Internet/games/mobile safety
  
• Critical competence solves most issues

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Schools, ISPs, government/local authorities,
NGOs and mass media all play a vital role in
delivering safe use messages coordination is
the key to success!
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Thank you!Elisabeth.staksrud_at_media.uio.no
Full Eurobarometer report available
at http//europa.eu.int/information_society/activ
ities/sip/eurobarometer/index_en.htm

• ww.saftonline.no