In collaboration with the Department for Media and Communication (University of Oslo), the Norwegian Media Authority hosted an online seminar to illuminate parents' and children’s digital media lives. The webinar featured researchers working in the field of parent's and children's digital media use. Stakeholders were invited to comment on the report and the situation on the topic from their point of view.

The Norwegian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) launched a new updated guide to screen use for parents of preschool children, and the digital family online game “The Star Colony” had a second launch as it has been updated with more content since the first launch in September 2020.

Several other Safer Internet Day events also took place on this day and during the week from various organisations and in different places in Norway. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all of the events were organised digital and hence were easily accessible for interested parties.

In addition, Safer Internet Day kicked off with a key message online from several Heads of Ministries of Norway, including the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, the Ministry of Children and Family, and the Ministry of Education and Research. This year's joint statement focused on the need for a better coordinated public effort in children’s digital lives. The Ombudsman for Children has previously mapped that more than 20 government agencies from six different sectors and 50 organisations have partly overlapping responsibilities and carry out measures aimed at children's digital lives.

The Norwegian Media Authority has proposed to gather forces around a national plan and strategy for a safer digital childhood. This includes more research, evaluation measures and efforts on counselling and guidance for parents and children. Better coordination can make it easier both to make demands on international actors and to look further on regulation or other measures to protect children from harmful or problematic aspects of digital life.

Information, news and debate are increasingly disseminated and consumed on digital platforms. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to accelerate the digital shift in several areas. More than 90 per cent of children have a smartphone from the age of 10 or 11, according to the Norwegian Media Authority's large survey Children and the Media 2020. This also means that children have access to an enormous and confusing universe of content from a young age.

There are many opportunities. Children and the Media 2020 shows that 86 per cent of 13-18-year-olds say that they have a lot of contact with their friends on social media, but they are also, in many ways, exposed to content that can be harmful, such as content about self-harm, drug dealing, fighting and violence. Some have also experienced private images being spread on the internet or have been sent content that they find unpleasant.

So, the question we asked on Safer Internet Day was how do parents and authorities deal with these dilemmas? On the one hand, children have the right to freedom of expression and to seek, receive and disseminate information and ideas "of all kinds and in every way", as stated in Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These rights are difficult to fulfil without access to digital platforms. But, at the same time, children are entitled to protection – for example, against harmful content. How do we balance these considerations?

The Norwegian Media Authority emphasises the need for children to be digitally equipped early, both to safeguard the right to and need for information and participation but also to prevent them from being completely unprepared as adults. But this must not happen in an uncontrolled way. Both schools and parents have a great responsibility to help build their children's critical media understanding so that they learn to distinguish true from false, and advertising from editorial material, or know the rules that apply to sharing pictures via social media.

The definitive answers to what parents want may not yet be available; they may never be found. But we must make an effort to help our children develop critical thinking skills and be competent media users who take advantage of the opportunities that digital life provides while at the same time protecting them as far as possible and enabling them to deal with the more problematic issues. In this work, insight, communication, guidance, and dialogue are more important than prohibition and regulation.

Find out more about Safer Internet Day in Norway. Alternatively, find out more about the work of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.