Better Internet for Kids

The main objectives of this report are to map the presence of initiatives, programmes, and curricular content related to cybersecurity in basic and upper secondary education in Portugal, comparing these with other European Union (EU) countries, to identify good practices, and recommend ways to improve the integration of cybersecurity into school curricula.

The Use of Technologies by Minors in Spain, Edition 2024 - Data 2023, is a report published the National Observatory of Technology and Society analysing the relationship between minors and digital technologies, considering various demographic factors including gender, age, region, and household income.

The "Violence on the Internet" survey was carried out  by the Hellenic Center for Safer Internet at FORTH among 4,800 adolescents, under the approval of the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports.

The report found that almost half of adolescents have been exposed as observers to cases of violence on the Internet and 13% of adolescents have experienced online violence.

The Youth Internet Monitor is an initiative of Saferinternet.at and presents current data on social media usage by young people in Austria. It provides data on which social networks are currently popular with young users in Austria, and includes data on trends and gender differences. According to the 2024 edition, the six social networks most used by young people in Austria are, respectively: WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

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.

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 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 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.