Young Children's Use of Digital Technologies in the home Results from a European research project

Stine Liv Johansen, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Aarhus University @stineliv Malene Charlotte Larsen, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Aalborg University @malenel

ECREA preconference on Children, Youth, and Media. Prague, November 2016

Background Project headed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre

Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technology

206 families in 18 countries 10 families in Denmark with 5-6 year old children (5 girls, 5 boys) + siblings

Different family types (married, divorced, younger/older siblings, no siblings, half/step siblings)

Mainly middle and upper middle class

Danish study in collaboration with The Danish Media Council for Children and Young People

Data collection during fall 2015

Family interviews with probes (stickers, drawings)

Two researchers attending each family visit

Semi-structured interviews with parents

Informal conversations with children and observations of their media use

Card games, visual tours

Research questions

RQ 1: How do children under the age of 8 engage with new (online) technologies?

RQ 2: How are new (online) technologies perceived by the different family members?

RQ 3: What role do these new technologies play in the children’s and parents’ lives (separately and in relation to family life in general)?

RQ 4: How do parents manage their younger children’s use of digital technologies?

General findings: Danish children and digital technologies

Danish children are heavy users of digital media.

The iPad is the most commonly used (and preferred) technology among all the children in the study.

Generally, more than 90 % of Danish children under the age of seven have access to a tablet in the home*  

Broadcast television is becoming less important for the families in the sample.

*The DR media research department's annual report on the use of electronic media in Denmark, p. 26.

General findings: Danish children and digital technologies

Children under the age of 8 are rarely 'online'; they use online content, but they do not often engage in practices such as online gaming or social networking.

'The Internet' is a non-concrete issue for the children in the study.

Research framework  INDIVIDUAL

CONTEXTFAMILY CONTEXT

USE 

RQ 1: Individual Use: children/parents

RQ 3: Family Use/Dynamics/Practices

PERCEPTIONS/ATTITUDES

 

RQ 2:Awareness towards risks/opportunities of the children of the parents 

RQ 4: Parental Mediation

Central findings: Patterns of use  INDIVIDUAL

CONTEXTFAMILY CONTEXT

USE 

RQ 1: Individual Use: children/parents

RQ 3: Family Use/Dynamics/Practices

PERCEPTIONS/ATTITUDES

 

RQ 2:Awareness to risks/opportunities of the children of the parents 

RQ 4: Parental Mediation

Central findings: Patterns of use

“Sometimes, my brother and I sit with our iPads and play Minecraft together.”- Silas, five years old

From individual use to family activity

Central findings: Patterns of useFrom playfulness to relaxation

“I love playing with the iPad because you don’t have to talk to anybody while playing.” – Nanna, 6 years old

“The girls definitely get inspired by playing some of their games on the iPad and then making up ‘real’ games from it” – Nina, 32 years old

Central findings: Parental encouragements vs concerns   INDIVIDUAL

CONTEXTFAMILY CONTEXT

USE 

RQ 1: Individual Use: children/parents

RQ 3: Family Use/Dynamics/Practices

PERCEPTIONS/ATTITUDES

 

RQ 2:Awareness to risks/opportunities of the children of the parents 

RQ 4: Parental Mediation

Central findings: Parental encouragements vs concerns

“She hasn’t really paid that much attention to the iPad. Sometimes, I think we want her to use it more than she does” – Sanne, 32 years old

“This kind of endless American teenage shows, where they say ‘Oh my God’, and everything is pink (…) We don’t want her to watch these, its not appropriate for her age, and to me it’s just stupid”

- Benny, 38 years old

Central findings: Ideals vs everyday life  INDIVIDUAL

CONTEXTFAMILY CONTEXT

USE 

RQ 1: Individual Use: children/parents

RQ 3: Family Use/Dynamics/Practices

PERCEPTIONS/ATTITUDES

 

RQ 2:Awareness to risks/opportunities of the children of the parents 

RQ 4: Parental Mediation

Central findings: Ideals vs everyday life“I may have used it as a babysitter, when he was a baby. This makes me feel guilty (…) I think it can be too addictive and become a habit. It removes… I want us to be present.”- Lisbeth, 33 years

“Sometimes we can see that Cecilie needs to sit with the iPad and just wind down. Perhaps for ten or twenty minutes.”- Kasper, 34 years

SummaryAmbiguities of everyday lifeNot a personal toolRisks around the corner

Where do we go from here? Becoming a media user – consumer and producer

The internet as an infrastructure

Browsing and choosing

Interviewer: I would like for you to tell me a little bit about it [which media you use, ed.]. And you are welcome to tell me what you do here, when you are with Dad, and what you do at your Mum’s?

Lucas: At Mum’s I play iPad. And at Dad’s, I watch the computer.

Interviewer: You play computer?

Lucas: No, I can’t play it. But I watch it.

Interviewer: What do you watch, then?

Lucas: Minecraft.

Interviewer: Is it videos that you watch?

Lucas: Yes.  

Interviewer: Okay. What’s in them? These videos?

Lucas: Ehhhh… Mines! Minecraft.

Interviewer: Yes. Somebody building them?

Lucas: Yes.

Interviewer: And what do you watch on the tv?

Lucas: Ehh… This tv (points to the television set in the living room)?

Interviewer: Yes, for instance.

Lucas: You can’t choose that. It just comes.

Interviewer: What do you mean, you can’t choose that?

Lucas: You can put a DVD on, then.

Interviewer: Yes. But does it sometimes show something, when it just comes, that you watch?

Lucas: I don’t know...

Lucas uses the internet differently in his two homes

Childrens’s agency – a kinship model

“…articulate in positive terms a model of what it means to be a child”

Marah Gubar (2016): The Hermeneutics of Recuperation: What a Kinship-Model Approach to Children’s Agency Could DO for Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies. Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Culture, 8.1 (2016)

Thank you

Stine Liv Johansen/@StineLivhttp://pure.au.dk/portal/da/imvslj@hum.au.dk

Malene Charlotte Larsen/@malenelhttp://vbn.aau.dk/en/malenel@hum.aau.dk

Download full report: http://www.dfi.dk/~/media/Sektioner/Medieraadet/internet%20nyheder/National%20report_2015_Denmark_PROOFREAD.ashx