Better Internet for Kids

This report presents findings from surveys regarding children and online media (Börn og netmiðlar), conducted by the Icelandic Media Commission (Fjölmiðlanefnd) in collaboration with the University of Iceland's School of Education. The research utilised large-scale, electronic questionnaires targeting students aged 9 to 18 across Iceland. Implementations occurred in 2021, featuring 5,911 participants, and in 2023, featuring 6,489 participants. The questionnaire was initially based on a study by the Norwegian Media Authority, Medietilsynet, and updated and localised.

This report published by Embætti landlæknis (Directorate of Health) explores the effects of pornography access and consumption by children and young people in Iceland. The impact on their health and well-being is assessed to provide recommendations to teachers, educators, parents, and children related to measures to protect youth from sexual and gender-based violence. The research demonstrates that access to pornographic material is facilitated in the digital environment, finding that large platforms with pornographic material have high levels of access.

According to the report, in 2023, 25.9% of people aged 16 to 74 have digital skills at basic level and 30.0% above basic, giving a proportion of 56.0% for all those with skills at basic level or above, 0.7 percentage points (pp) more than in 2021.

In the same year, 85.8% of the resident population aged 16-74 used the internet in the 3 months prior to the interview (1.3 pp more than in the previous year). Virtually all young people aged 16-24 and all students use the internet, and the usage rate is over 98% for those (16-74) who have completed upper secondary or tertiary education.

The publication presents the results of the ""Information Society Indicators"" survey, which includes: a report on the use of ICT in enterprises, a report on the use of ICT in financial sector enterprises, the use of ICT in public administration units, the use of ICT in households (including an individual questionnaire) and basic characteristics of the ICT sector.

(Source: Report).

The JIM (Youth, Information, Media) study series is organised by the Media Education Research Association Southwest (mpfs), a cooperation of the State Institute for Communications in Baden-Württemberg (LFK) and the Media Authority Rhineland-Palatinate,  annually since 1998 in cooperation with Südwestrundfunk (SWR). The report investigates the repertoire of media available to young people, including their access to and use of computers/laptops, televisions, smartphones, game consoles and streaming services.

The KIM study (Children, Internet, Media) has been carried out in Germany since 1999 to understand how children use media.  The 2022 edition found that children often use digital media alone and without supervision – especially digital games and the Internet. Two thirds of parents also did not use any technical options for youth media protection such as filters or security settings.

Cyprus participated in the 2021/2022 HBSC study, a WHO collaborative cross-national survey examining health behaviours, social context, and risk behaviours among 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds. The Cyprus report highlights adolescent online activity and cyberbullying: 14.4% of children reported being victims of cyberbullying at least once or twice in recent months, and 9.5% admitted to bullying others online. The findings also cover mental health, substance use, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with results informing national education and health policy.

(Source: Report).

"The National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions issues the annual Report on Digital Addictions in the Czech Republic, part of which is dedicated to children and adolescents. The report is included in the information package of annual reports on the situation of addiction in the Czech Republic.

The overuse of the Internet and digital technologies affects a relatively large proportion of the population and is the cause of a range of health disorders and adverse impacts on individuals and their surroundings.

The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) is a forty-year-old international study of the lifestyles and well-being of young people, conducted every four years in most European countries and North America.

The HBSC network currently includes 51 countries/regions. The survey has been conducted in Estonia since 1993. Information on the history of the survey and international results can be found on the website https://www.hbsc.org . Estonian survey results and published publications can be found on the website of the National Institute of Health and Research.

The ""Ungar & medier 2023"" report, published by Statens medieråd, is an  extensive statistical investigation into the media habits and attitudes of children and young people aged 9–18. The report  presents analyses of self-assessed responses from children and young people aged 9–18 years, based on a survey collection in the autumn/winter of 2022. The results sometimes apply to the entire age range 9–18 years, sometimes they are distributed across the age groups 9–12 years, 13–16 years and 17–18 years.