MUS$ Flujos de efectivo originado por actividades de la operación:

(online) videos or

(on-demand) TV

programmes

These three types of access to video games are not mutually exclusive and can actually be complementary to one another, the most common being oc- casional and usual access.

It seems that most very young chil- dren have their first contact with games occasionally through their par- ents’ smartphones or tablets in situa- tions where parents use the natural at- traction of children for those activities in time and places where they need their children to be calm and safely occupied. This ‘SOS’ function of the device, as described in section 3 of this chapter, is maintained as long as

the child does not own its own device. Video games can enter the routine of a child at pre-school age. Parental me- diation in this case spans from active to passive mediation, providing a dif- ferent context to the gaming experi- ence.

Few parents, especially fathers who are gamers themselves, consider video games, and those played on games consoles in particular, as quality fam- ily time. This positive and active pa- rental mediation has been reported notably in the northern countries of our sample (Demark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway). In this con- text, young children learn with their parent to handle the technology itself, but also the video gaming experience, including how to manage their emo- tions and when to stop the activity. Experience defined by occasional ac- cess only provides occasional gamers compare to daily or usual gamers. Most the time in those instances, chil- dren use their parent’s devices with remote supervision. We note that the technology is not tailored to children use and can potentially be riskier (ac- cessing inappropriate content, com- mercial risks).

After usually an initial involvement of the parents, usual gamers use digital devices to game autonomously and individually and this activity is em- bedded in their everyday life. Parents claim to monitor their digital activi- ties from the distance.

Nonetheless, keeping an eye on the children’s activity becomes more and more challenging given the portabil- ity of some devices and the smaller screen.

for searching for information for their homework. This usage increases if supported or requested by the school itself. Both children and parents across countries - except Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as Belgium - often say that the quality of educational applications and games is quite poor or missing in their national language.

It is also important to note that very few children mentioned learning apps spontaneously (whose declared aims are to foster reading/writing/numera- cy/logical activities, etc.) but some re- ported the use of them on request ei- ther because their parents chose such apps for them or because they used them at school.

On this point, we note that the major- ity of the Swiss children in the sample cited the use of an online book quiz named Antolin, which is commonly used in Swiss German-speaking pri- mary schools. Interestingly, it is also the sub-sample in which listening to and reading digital books was men- tioned the most by children and par- ents among digital activities whereas it was nearly absent in the digital landscape of the rest or the sample. Finally, we note in our study that un- der this category of so-called ‘serious’ or educational games, children show enthusiasm for games with a competi- tive edge, like ‘just-for-fun’ games. The exception to this rule occurs in games that require a high level of creativity from the child, such as Mi- necraft, the video-game most cited in our sample.

The routine factor also is important. The risks here are linked to loneliness, and trial and error learning patterns. Some interviewers noted that when children have access to a mobile de- vice and an internet connection, searching, downloading and erasing apps on the device can become an ac- tivity in itself.

Interviewers also remarked that very little mention has been made of radio, CD players and MP3 and MP4. Mu- sic is part of young children’s life but they find their own music via inter- net-based platforms such as YouTube or even Spotify, if either their parents or older siblings have established a free account. Children report ease in finding the music they like and can search for it on video platforms such as YouTube. Firstly, the autocomplete feature for text helps them to write what they are looking for in the search engine. Secondly, the images displayed as vignettes of the videos help them to select the musical video they look for and finally the autosuggestion for the next video helps them to find the next one, although it does not help them to stop this activity.

Finally, we noted that this activity was very gender based, with girls in par- ticular liking to practice their dancing skills with the music of their favourite band.

Information & learning - Google and YouTube

Some interviewed children link the use of digital technologies to educa- tion purposes. Children attending primary school can sometimes use the internet and digital technologies for learning and studying, particularly

Creation - Drawings, pictures, videos and games objects

Some interviewed children create digital content, mainly drawings and paintings, pictures and videos and ob- jects created in the virtual world. Many of those children use, especially on their parents’ suggestion, apps for drawings and painting and learn how to save creations of which they are proud. It is interesting to note that this activity seems more popular among children aged between 4 and 5 than between 6 and 7 years old. Some chil- dren in the latter age group reported that they used to draw and paint with the tablet but not anymore.

Comparing this information with their parents’ interview revealed, for example, that the child no longer uses a certain device where those drawings apps were first installed by the parent. They now use a new device where the drawing app is absent. They did not ask for it but forgot about it and moved on to use other activities and apps. It seems that other digital activities - like taking pictures or videos - drive the in- terests of children more than drawing and painting at a certain age.

Some children know how to take pic- tures or videos with the devices they own or have access to and like to do this. Few of them can edit them and the ones who can have benefited from an active tutorial from an older sib- lings or adults to acquire this compe- tence. In most cases, those recordings have no other purpose than preserv- ing the memory of (funny) moments of their life.

Some children are creators of virtual objects within video games, mainly

driven by the features of the game itself. Those objects range from the creation of simple avatars that will im- personate the child as a player during the game, to entire and elaborate vir- tual entities such as houses or villages or any possible constructions that the game allow them to create. Here again, one game stands out among the others for its ease of use and flexibil- ity: Minecraft creator.

Communication -Integrating family or community life and sharing interests and emotions Some children use digital technology as a communication tool and it often actually enters into the communica- tion schemes of the family. Typically, children that have some family mem- bers abroad know face-to-face remote communication tools such as Skype or FaceTime, and a few of them are able to use these autonomously.

Children, mirroring the