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twenty - Understanding digital inequality: the interplay between parental socialisation and children's development
- Edited by Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science, Leslie Haddon, London School of Economics and Political Science, Anke Görzig, London School of Economics and Political Science
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- Book:
- Children, Risk and Safety on the Internet
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 07 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 18 July 2012, pp 257-272
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Summary
Introduction
Across Europe, economic restructuring and immigration from disadvantaged countries show that relations related to inequality are dynamic and persistent. Given the diversity of European countries, in social, cultural and economic terms, the gaps between rich and poor take various forms and occur to differing degrees. However, in all countries social inequalities are a major concern in social politics. Political economists point to the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that continue to affect the communicative rights and competencies of considerable numbers of citizens (Murdock and Golding, 2004). Hence, the increasing emergence of a society that is mediated, experienced and encountered more and more through the internet is raising continuous questions about whether and how vulnerable families are getting the best out of the social, informational, educational and cultural opportunities of online technologies (Livingstone, 2009).
The younger children are, the more parental education is required for them to use the internet safely and exploit its potentials. Since lower parental educational status often leads to less confidente parental mediation, we need to provide the resources for children to draw on to build competencies for using the internet and coping with online risks. As children get older, they achieve more unrestricted access to and use of the internet, and parents tend to refrain from intervening in their personal time and space (see, for example, Wang et al, 2005; Livingstone and Helsper, 2008; Bauwens et al, 2009). However, the degree of liberty children enjoy and how they deal with it is often the product of a particular family culture. Drawing on sociological and psychological theoretical perspectives, this chapter investigates two research questions:
How does parents’ formal education influence children's internet use?
How does children's development (by age) interact with their family background in terms of an autonomous and competent use of the internet?
The interrelation between these two processes, that is, parental socialisation and development by age, helps us understand the interplay between children's activities in dealing with the internet and how their parents mediate this.
Building on existing empirical work, first, we discuss the persistent importance of social inequality in information and communications technology (ICT) use in industrialised countries; second, we propose a theoretical framework that includes children and parents’ individual agency and how they are interlinked with respect to their societal status.
seventeen - Making use of ICT for learning in European schools
- Edited by Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science, Leslie Haddon, London School of Economics and Political Science
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- Book:
- Kids Online
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 15 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 30 September 2009, pp 217-228
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Summary
Introduction
Across Europe, the internet is an integral part of the lives of young people. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey on safer internet issues, three quarters of all children between 6 and 17 years in the EU27 had used the internet as of autumn 2008, with even higher figures applying to teenagers (EC, 2008: 5). There are great similarities from one country to another concerning the time spent online.
Young people use the internet mainly as an educational resource, for entertainment, games and fun, searching for information, social networking and sharing experiences with others (Hasebrink et al, 2009). They also use it for their work at school or university (Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest, 2007). Livingstone and Bober (2005) summarise for the UK Children Go Online project that computer access is growing, with 92% having internet access at school. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer many opportunities: education, participation and civic engagement, creativity as well as identity and social connection (Hasebrink et al, 2009). As the rise in new technologies leads towards network or knowledge societies, schools have an important role in strengthening children's competencies in dealing with the opportunities and risks associated with ICT.
This chapter focuses on the use of ICT in schools. First, it briefly discusses attitudes towards ICT in schools from a European perspective. Drawing on the European Union (EU) Kids Online data repository, this chapter outlines the state of research on ICT and schools. The next section focuses on the internet at school and for schools across Europe, presenting different research results of European studies on various aspects of the topic ‘ICT in schools’. The concluding section starts from a constructivist perspective on learning with ICT in schools and makes proposals about best practice regarding the handling of ICT in schools.
European variation in the implementation of ICT in Schools
The way that each new medium (for example books, radio, film) has been treated and integrated into schools in different European countries is strongly related to the difference in the development of the countries’ media landscape (for example laws), historical and political developments, school systems and educational goals, cultural differences and concepts of childhood as well as theoretical treatments of media (for example academic or cultural discourses).