EU Kids Online 2020 Survey results from 19 countries David Smahel, Hana Machackova, Giovanna Mascheroni, Lenka Dedkova, Elisabeth Staksrud, Kjartan Ólafsson, Sonia Livingstone and Uwe Hasebrink with members of the EU Kids Online network ISSN 2045-256X Please cite this report as: Smahel, D., Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., Livingstone, S., and Hasebrink, U. (2020). EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. EU Kids Online. Doi: 10.21953/lse.47fdeqj01ofo EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. This report maps the internet access, online practices, skills, online risks and opportunities for children aged 9–16 in Europe. Teams of the EU Kids Online network collaborated between autumn 2017 and summer 2019 to conduct a major survey of 25,101 children in 19 European countries. Authors: David Smahel, Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University Hana Machackova, Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University Giovanna Mascheroni, OssCom, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Lenka Dedkova, Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University Elisabeth Staksrud, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo Kjartan Ólafsson, University of Akureyri and University of Oslo Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science Uwe Hasebrink, Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut Authors’ acknowledgements: This report and the development of a joint comparative dataset was partially supported by the project FUTURE (GX19-27828X) which is financed by the Czech Science Foundation, and a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security’s Proposition 12 S (2016–2017) Escalation Plan against Violence and Abuse (2017–2021). The authors acknowledge the support of all members of the EU Kids Online network. Full acknowledgements for the survey are described in a separate chapter. Thanks also to members of the Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society (IRTIS, Masaryk University) for help with this report. The EU Kids Online network is a multinational research network. It seeks to enhance knowledge of European children’s online opportunities, risks and safety. It uses multiple methods to map children’s and parents’ experiences of the internet, in dialogue with national and European policy stakeholders. Now working in more than 30 countries, the network integrates research expertise across multiple disciplines and methods. For all reports, findings and the technical report of this survey, as well as full details of national partners, please visit www.eukidsonline.net | 2 | Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 5 Key findings ................................................................................................................................ 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 13 How to read the findings ...................................................................................................... 16 Access ....................................................................................................................................... 18 Devices ................................................................................................................................. 18 Time spent online ................................................................................................................. 22 Practices and skills .................................................................................................................... 25 Online activities .................................................................................................................... 25 Digital skills ........................................................................................................................... 35 Risks and opportunities ............................................................................................................ 43 Overall negative online experiences .................................................................................... 45 Online aggression and cyberbullying ................................................................................... 52 Harmful content ................................................................................................................... 61 Data misuse .......................................................................................................................... 69 Excessive internet use .......................................................................................................... 77 Sexting .................................................................................................................................. 82 Seeing sexual images ............................................................................................................ 89 Meeting new people ............................................................................................................ 94 Preference of online communication ................................................................................ 100 Social context ......................................................................................................................... 106 Mediation ........................................................................................................................... 106 Sharenting .......................................................................................................................... 121 Digital ecology .................................................................................................................... 126 Conclusions and policy implications....................................................................................... 131 Interpreting the evidence .................................................................................................. 131 Differences and inequalities within countries ................................................................... 132 Comparisons across countries ........................................................................................... 133 A holistic approach to children’s well-being in a digital world .......................................... 135 | 3 | Country profiles ...................................................................................................................... 137 Croatia (HR) ........................................................................................................................ 138 Czech Republic (CZ) ............................................................................................................ 139 Estonia (EE) ......................................................................................................................... 140 Finland (FI) .......................................................................................................................... 141 Flanders – Belgium (VL) ...................................................................................................... 142 France (FR) .......................................................................................................................... 143 Germany (DE) ..................................................................................................................... 144 Italy (IT) ............................................................................................................................... 145 Lithuania (LT) ...................................................................................................................... 146 Malta (MT) .......................................................................................................................... 147 Norway (NO) ....................................................................................................................... 148 Poland (PL) .......................................................................................................................... 149 Portugal (PT) ....................................................................................................................... 150 Romania (RO) ..................................................................................................................... 151 Russian Federation (RU) ..................................................................................................... 152 The Republic of Serbia (RS) ................................................................................................ 153 The Slovak Republic (SK) .................................................................................................... 154 Spain (ES) ............................................................................................................................ 155 Switzerland (CH) ................................................................................................................