Young children and the use of digital technology across Europe

Children are often more digitally skilled than parents realise and learn both from observing other family members and from developing their own strategies. Yet parental attitudes still deeply influence children’s levels of digital literacy and parents tend to have a more positive view of digital technology if schools meaningfully integrate such technologies into children’s learning. These are some of the findings from a major Europe-wide European Commission study of children’s media practices presented here, during Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2018, by Stéphane Chaudron and Rosanna Di Gioia. Stéphane researches young digital citizens’ security and safety at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) and Rosanna is a researcher in the JRC Cyber and Digital Citizens’ Security Unit. [Header image credit: M. Stewart, CC BY-SA 2.0.jpg]