Protección de la familia en la normativa internacional

1. One important factor influencing whether and how children use new technologies is their access to them at home. The television (either digital or analogue) was the device most frequently used across families, followed by the digital television and the tablet. In a slight majority of the families that were interviewed none of the digital devices were in the target children’s possession. Instead, they were either considered ‘family devices’ or the devices were in the parents’ possession and children were allowed to use them. In four families the target child did own a mobile device. The largest discrepancy that was observed between media usage and ownership existed for the television, followed by the tablet. Furthermore, a range of circumstances either enabled or limited children’s engagement with the technolo-

gies present: whether or not the parents considered a device a ‘family device’, the availabil- ity of preferred activities and devices, the amount of leisure time available and the ways in which parents managed their children’s use of technologies

2. New technologies such as tablets, smartphones and, to a lesser extent, laptops and personal computers seem to fulfil many purposes. Children and parents used them for gaming, con- necting with friends and relatives, watching videos and music clips, engaging in school- or work-related activities and searching for information. The children that were interviewed differed in the range of possibilities they used. This variability was observed between fami- lies, but also between siblings within families, and depended to a great extent on children’s interests and practices adopted in the family.

3. Several target children used a digital device to follow up on a particular interest or as an extension to regular play. A special case of interest-driven media engagement was that children’s digital media use was sometimes influenced by family practices, i.e. the interest different family members had and the activities they preferred to engage in. Furthermore, in some cases, children incorporated new technologies in their regular play, for example by making video clips of their own songs and putting them on YouTube.

4. There are factors outside of the immediate family environment that influence children’s engagement with new technologies. The single most influential one mentioned was school. In one family the children attended a so-called ‘iPad school’, where most learning activi- ties are provided by means of tablets. In most schools, however, digital technologies did not dominate classroom practice and were used as a complement to learning through print materials. In these schools personal computers instead of tablets were available to children; in some families the parents indicated that children were allowed to bring their own device to school at fixed times of the week. If schools employed digital devices as a supplement to print materials, children were familiar with educational platforms such as Ambrasoft and several parents provided them with the opportunity to practice at home as well. Other fac- tors outside of the family that influenced children’s digital media use were very varied. In some families, the extended family, especially grandparents, played a role. Peers, too, influ- enced what children did with technologies. In this manner, children were sometimes exposed to apps or devices they did not have available in the home, for instance Facebook.

5. Using the tablet and television are among the most popular activities for children to engage in. Several children also indicated that the smartphone, iWatch, MP3 player, toy tablet and game consoles were great fun. Yet the number of children who chose these devices was smaller, reflecting that differences between children existed in their affinities for technolo- gies. An important finding was that young children’s preference for new technology was generally balanced out by their preference for non-media play such as swimming, drawing and outdoor play.

6. Parents vary in their support of children’s digital media use. Some can be labelled as advo- cates or, at least, positive suppliers: they provided a rich home media environment, offering their children ample opportunity to explore digital devices. Other parents were (explicitly) negative and limited their children’s media use accordingly. Then there were parents who can be qualified as ‘in-betweens’: they allowed the use of digital media, acknowledged posi- tive and negative aspects and encouraged non-media play. However, most parents men-

tioned both ‘the bright and the dark side’ of digital media.

7. The word most frequently associated by parents with new technologies is ‘educational’. This qualification was often accompanied by words such as ‘necessary competences’, ‘curious’, ‘informative’ and ‘challenging’ and was related to the sense generally shared by parents that children benefited from digital media by acquiring skills and knowledge required for school and in their later lives. Furthermore, a slight majority of the parents mentioned that digital devices stirred the children’s imagination. Yet some other parents mentioned that this could be a negative thing, for example because some images are too worrying for young children. 8. There may be a fine line between positive and negative aspects of new technologies. In all

but one family at least parents in addition to labels like ‘educational’ and ‘fun’ chose one of the words ‘addictive’, ‘distractive’ or ‘tension’. One parent provided an explanation for this: whether or not digital media were experienced by him and his wife as a negative influence depended on the social circumstances. For example, when visiting a restaurant they some- times keep the child busy facilitated isolation by providing digital media as a babysitter, but they found it annoying when their daughter was absorbed by a digital device and tended not to see or hear her parents.

9. Three types of what we call ‘mediation styles’ can be tentatively distinguished. These should be seen as the emphasis parents tend to place on particular values, for instance freedom, balance or protection. ‘Freedom within boundaries’: these were parents who allowed their children much room for exploring digital media. Although all these parents had certain (im- plicit) rules, they provided many opportunities for access to devices, gave much leeway in the sense that they were lenient with respect to time spent on media use and in some cases even explicitly encouraged children’s use of digital devices. ‘Striving for balance’: these were parents who were not necessarily very strict over their children’s media use, but at the same time tried to prevent digital devices from playing too big a role in their children’s lives, both by encouraging them to undertake other activities and by employing rules that restricted media use to some degree. ‘Maximising limits’: these were parents who aimed to protect their children against negative effects of digital media, for instance social isolation, and took measures (some quite strict) to explicitly limit their children’s media use.

10. Measures parents adopt to limit their children’s media use take various forms. These meas- ures involved physical limitations (e.g. using password protection), stimulating or enforcing alternative activities (e.g. outdoor play) and explicit rules. Parents mentioned various rules that applied to four different domains: the acquisition and use of specific content (e.g. not being allowed to download apps); timing (e.g. no television on weekday mornings); the com- bination of content and timing (e.g. no energising media activities before bedtime); location or context (e.g. no media during play dates); and control (e.g. having to ask permission to use a device).

11. Some parents monitor their children’s media use rather than set very strict rules. This some- times resulted in on-the-spot decisions, such as parents ad hoc telling their children to stop when they felt they had spent too much time using a device, without having agreed on a maximum time beforehand.

Norway

National socio-economical context

• Norway has been ranked as number 1 by the Human Development Index of the UN from 2009 until the present. The unemployment was 4.8 % in June 2016. Norway is the world’s second largest exporter of fish, the third largest of gas and the fifth largest of oil. The population is only 5.2 million.

• Birth-rate is 1.86 (range 10 in Europe), and the average size of family is 2.20 persons. 76 % of children live together with both parents and 24 % with one of them. 80 % of children live together with siblings.

Internet and digital technology

• Some Norwegian research institutions were permanently connected to the internet in 1982 (tests were conducted in 1973, as the first country outside the United States). The internet was made available to the public in general in 1991. By 1999 Finland and Norway were among the world leaders of internet users per capita (30 %). In 2008 71 % used internet, and in 2011 98 % of families with children had internet at home.

• In 2016 84 % of children aged 1-16 years of age had access to tablets, 75 % to desktop computers, 62 % to game consoles and 55 % to mobile phones. 18 % of children aged 5-6 years have their own smartphone.

General pattern of parenthood

• In a national survey of 2015 83 % of the parents said they thought parents and other caretakers should have the main responsibility for protecting children in their use of me- dia. Parents and children talking together is widely regarded as the best way to protect children from unsuitable media content.

Schooling system for children from 0 to 8-year-old

• Schooling starts at age 6.

of 10 1-6-year-olds attend. Very few aged under 1 attend because parents are entitled to 46 weeks at full salary, or 56 weeks at 80 % pay in maternity benefits.

• The national framework for ‘barnehage’ of 2006 states: ‘Children ought to experience digital tools as a source for play, communication and collecting information’. The same year ‘digital skills’ were added as the fourth basic skill in the Norwegian school frame- work.

Age Schooling type

0-3 Barnehage’ = Kindergarten / Pre School / Nursery 6-8 Two first grades of primary school

After-school and leisure activities

• The primary school has a before- and after-school care for grades 1-4. Common leisure free-time activities, besides using ICT, are sport (outdoor and indoor), hiking and using playgrounds and some children attend various activities offered by cultural schools and voluntary organisations.