This chapter presents the methodological lessons learned from an international, qualitative study that explored the experiences of children under eight years of age and their families with digital technologies. The challenge was to investigate the digital engagement of young children in the home context, across countries, from a qualitative perspective and to extract policy-relevant implications. Researchers collected data on young children's behavior and perceptions related to the use of digital technologies through interviews with 234 families in 21 countries between 2014 and 2017. The chapter focuses first on discussing the challenges that researchers faced in the data collection, that is, the issues of sampling, finding a balance between standardization and flexibility, the development and implementation of the common research protocol and tools, and ethical considerations. Then it presents the challenges in the data analysis strategies: (a) the organization of the work of the international research team, (b) representativity as an interpretive factor, and (c) and ethical issues and dilemmas. These issues are examined from a research perspective that considers children as active participants and research as a reflexive process between researchers and participants. The chapter concludes by providing methodological recommendations for future research studies in this area.

LEARNING OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL, LEARNING BEYOND THE CURRICULA: THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY REMOTE SCHOOLING

L’accesso a internet da parte dei più piccoli solleva nuovi interrogativi rispetto all’uso domestico dei dispositivi touchscreen, alla loro capacità di supportare i processi di alfabetizzazione e l’acquisizione di competenze digitale, nonché ai modi in cui genitori favoriscono le pratiche di apprendimento. La ricerca sulla mediazione genitoriale di internet ha infatti mostrato come le aspettative dei genitori nei confronti della tecnologia, i discorsi sulle opportunità e i rischi di internet, e le stesse pratiche d’uso quotidiano delle tecnologie contribuiscano a modellare il contesto in cui i bambini vengono socializzati ai media digitali. Tali aspettative, preoccupazioni e pratiche variano in base al background socioeconomico e all’istruzione dei genitori, nonché al loro stile genitoriale. Questo articolo rielabora i dati di una ricerca qualitativa che ha coinvolto 70 famiglie europee emette a confronto le pratiche di scaffolding di famiglie a basso reddito/a bassa istruzione con quelle di famiglie a alto reddito/elevata istruzione. Nelle famiglie del primo tipo, i genitori spesso sperimentano un digital divide generazionale. Al contrario, i genitori che usano internet per lavoro o sono «tecno-entusiasti» si trovano più a loro agio nel mediare la relazione dei figli con i tablet, indipendentemente dal reddito e dal livello di istruzione. Tali differenze nella mediazione genitoriale e negli immaginari tecnologici dei genitori sono esemplificate dalla percezione del gioco digitale – come supporto o, al contrario, impedimento all’apprendimento dei bambini. As children access to the internet at ever younger ages, questions arise as to whether the use of touchscreens at home contributes to literacy and digital skills, and whether and how parents scaffold children’s learning. To date, research on parental mediation has shown that parental expectations of the role of ICTs in their children’s future, discourses of the opportunities and risks of the internet, and the everyday practices of media engagement all shape the ways in which children are socialised into using digital media at home. These expectations, worries and practices depend on parents’ education, socioeconomic background, and parenting culture. This article builds on prior research by the authors with 70 families in seven European countries. We compare lower income/less educated families and higher income/more educated families as they promote or hinder children’s (digital) literacy practices. We found that lower income families experience a generational digital divide and feel less confident in scaffolding children’s digital literacy practices. Instead, when parents use ICTs for work and/or are techno-enthusiasts, they are more engaged in children’s online activities irrespective of their background. The approach towards digital play – as either a vehicle or an impediment to children’s learning – is therefore indicative of different imaginaries around ICTs, different parenting styles and different mediation strategies.

How did families handle remote schooling during the time of Covid-19 lockdown during spring 2020? Perceptions on remote schooling activities were gathered from parents and their children at the end of primary education and in secondary education (10-18 years old) from 9 EU countries (Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain) in addition to Switzerland and Norway. The findings show that almost all children who participated in the survey were able to conduct some school-related activities using digital technologies, and many reported that their schools had provided them with both digital communication and learning platforms. The findings also point out to large variations in terms of how children were able to interact with their teachers in learning activities and how often children were in contact with their teachers through online means. In addition to learning activities provided by the school, parents also engaged in complementary learning activities with their children, for example by using free of charge online learning material and exercises, such as video recordings and online quizzes. Both children and parents were worried about the pandemic's negative impact on education, generally parents more so than children. Families voiced the need for better guidelines on how to support children with distance education activities and how to support the child psychologically during the confinement. Parents also expressed their need for more counselling and psychological support. These early results from the survey can guide future activities of schools and education systems in their move to digital education that can deliver more even, and better, pedagogical and social outcomes. They can also guide planning of practices that suite local context and needs. More in-depth analysis of this data will be made available throughout 2020-2021.

This paper describes the participatory approach chosen to develop and evaluate a new serious game called Cyber Chronix developed in the format of a digital comic strip with storytelling branches. The aim of the story entitled "Finding Data" is to raise awareness about the privacy risks and the data protection rights in the new European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), whilst delivering a pleasant and enjoyable experience. In the evaluation phase, students acted as assessors with the assignment of looking at the key factors contributing to engage in reading, to enhance curiosity and to raise awareness of EU GDPR concepts. Here we report on how students perceived the different dimensions of the story and how the game can help to disseminate knowledge of EU GDPR rights and raise awareness of privacy risks.

Children are often more digitally skilled than parents realise and learn both from observing other family members and from developing their own strategies. Yet parental attitudes still deeply influence children’s levels of digital literacy and parents tend to have a more positive view of digital technology if schools meaningfully integrate such technologies into children’s learning. These are some of the findings from a major Europe-wide European Commission study of children’s media practices presented here, during Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2018, by Stephane Chaudron and Rosanna Di Gioia. Stephane researches young digital citizens’ security and safety at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) and Rosanna is a researcher in the JRC Cyber and Digital Citizens’ Security Unit. [Header image credit: M. Stewart, CC BY-SA 2.0.jpg]

In contemporary society, digital media are fully integrated in our daily lives, indispensable for our routines, always connected and at-hand. Our research thus explores the parental mediation of portable digital devices in families with young children, addressing the following questions: (a) which are the most common parental mediation styles adopted towards young children; and (b) which individual features of the parents or contextual factors influence the parental mediation style adopted. Our methodology is exploratory and qualitative, considering as empirical corpus 14 national reports from the European-scale study “Young Children (0–8) and Digital Technologies” for a comparative thematic analysis. The authoritative style was the most common parental mediation style related to technology use. In general, there are transversal rules to all parental mediation styles (except laissez-faire style), such as withdraw or give devices to children according to their behavior, control (inappropriate) content and control the time of use. Also, parental perceptions and attitudes about the technologies played a heavier weight on the parental mediation style adopted, and consequently influenced the relationship of the children with digital media. Some implications for future studies, preventive actions, and family therapy are discussed.

This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of ‘gatekeepers’ when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents’ perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and accessible to the child. These perceptions in turn impact parents’ mediation strategies with regard to children’s actual use of digital technologies, with restrictive mediation – of time and less of content – and supervision applied most. The power exerted by parents over access and use may be understood as a limitation of the children’s rights. On the other hand, parents are not always concerned with the right of protection as they believe – sometimes incorrectly – that they are in control of the content their children are exposed to.

Children and young people are very active users of digital technology from an early age. Recent research shows that children learn quickly from mirroring the behaviour of parents, of older siblings and peers. On the one hand, children have acquired independency and skills within the digital world; on the other, they lack reflective and critical thinking as well as awareness about opportunities and risks such as cyber-bullying or digital identity theft. Active adult's mediation would allow for the integration of values and critical thinking but so far, adults seem poor active mediators and in need of practical tools of empowerment. Therefore, we developed Happy Onlife, a game to support players towards a happy online life. This interactive video game aims at empowering teachers and parents to actively guide children to become smarter, responsible, and respectful when using digital media. We chose an experimental and empirical approach and the design of the game repeatedly undertook the elicitation, representation and validation steps. Happy Onlife presents key messages about children's use, overuse, and risks of misuse of digital technologies and provides simple and clear strategies of prevention, mediation or remediation. Tests beds have proved the efficiency of the video game's questions to prompt discussion between generations and to drives the players towards a responsible and safe digital media use. Happy Onlife can be considered as an effective tool to support adults' mediation to children for a healthy and safe internet and digital technology use.