Children’s perceptions of online risks and problematic situations may greatly differ from those of adults. What adults perceive as problematic does not necessarily result in a negative or harmful experience for children. And when it comes to sexual content, both male and female teenagers suggest that it is up to the girls to take responsibility in avoiding sexy pictures being shared. These are some of the conclusions of a new report from the EU Kids Online project coordinated from the Czech Republic (Masaryk University).
Published on Safer Internet Day 2014 (11th of February), these new findings result from the qualitative analysis of 57 focus groups and 113 personal interviews with children aged 9 to 16. In total, 349 participants from nine different European countries[1] were invited to explain what they perceive as problematic or harmful online, and what they do to prevent this from happening.
No clear distinction between positive and negative experiences online
Researchers revealed that youth’s online problematic experiences are related almost to all contexts of their development, such as exploring their identity and sexuality, building relationships with peers or romantic relationships, but also to moral and ethics development. While parents, teachers or other adult caregivers may feel that exposure to certain online content or communication is risky, youngsters perceive this very differently. For example, posting sexy pictures and receiving flirty comments can be flattering and exciting. However, sharing of sexy pictures can turn also into traumatic experience, for example, when youths receive very bad comments or when these pictures are shared with too many people.
David Smahel (Masaryk University) explains: “The line between online positive and negative experiences is very thin. The outcome depends on the context of the situation and the children’s awareness of problems they may encounter on the internet. Even same situation can be perceived differently by different children. While some children are very cautious about for example their personal information, others believe that nothing bad will happen to them, regardless of what they disclose online.”
«Girls to take responsibility for sexual pictures”
In situations of unpleasant sexual issues, some children do not perceive limiting their online activities as useful. Unpleasant sexual content or communication is often being avoided by turning away from the situation or making sure one does not get involved. Measures such as scrolling further, clicking away, or simply not taking sexy pictures nor undressing oneself in front of the webcam are frequently mentioned. Surprisingly, male and female teenagers suggest that it is up to the girls to take responsibility in avoiding incidents with sexy pictures being shared.
Most of problematic situations occur on social networking sites
The majority of interviewed children expressed a range of concerns and online issues that sometimes bother them. Clearly, the worst risks in children’s eyes are online bullying and harassment, misuse of personal information, unwelcome or sexualized contact from strangers, but also commercial content. Looking at the media platforms where these incidents occur, about half of unpleasant online experiences happen on social networking sites such as Facebook. This shows that children acknowledge the potential risks of social networking sites, which does not necessarily mean they will do something to avoid the risk. Even if they are aware, some children simply don’t care much about potential risks.
[1] Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and UK.