This chapter analyses children's take-up of online opportunities and their outcomes, based on an analysis of the range and types of children’s online activities. There are certain continuities between children’s online and offline worlds – searching for information, entertainment and gaming and social networking online are, to a large extent, extensions or modifications of practices that are located in everyday life, that is, they are not particularly on one side or the other of the ‘real’/‘virtual’ divide. But there is little question that the internet has not added to the breadth and depth of children's everyday opportunities.

The EU Kids Online research has shown that the internet usage of children in Europe involves constant negotiation of opportunities and risks which, if well balanced, will contribute to a meaningful life, a valued identity and satisfactory relations with others (Livingstone and Haddon, 2009a, p 4). Analysing internet usage in terms of opportunities and risks requires its examination through the conceptual lenses of structure and agency. Agency refers to freedom, choice, control and motivation; structure is the set of rules and resources. The starting point of this chapter is children's agency. Identifying children's online activities allows reflection on their knowledge, interests and motivations. Internet usage practices connect the agency side and its social context, within the structure of offline and online activity, which enables certain factors and restricts others.

Research on children's online activities employs the concept of a ‘ladder of opportunities’ (Livingstone and Helsper, 2007; Kalmus et al, 2009) in order to structure the types of activities in which children engage, in a systematic way. It suggests a progression through stages of use. According to this approach, progress is related to increasing skills and more complex internet usage. The ‘ladder of opportunities’ approach is based on the notion that children fall into groups based on the range of the opportunities they use, from information-related sources to communication, to more advanced uses, such as online content creation, practised by only a few.

While this framework has some merits, it should be noted that the analysis of EU Kids Online data in this chapter suggests that some of these activities should be grouped rather than considered in terms of a step-by-step advancement, and also, some activities might fit into more than one group, depending on the backgrounds of the children involved.