SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

Why Children Are Unsafe In Cyberspace

Boston Consulting Group

The study offers a global overview of children's and carers' perceptions of risks in the digital environment and provides advice on how these can be countered. The categorisation and evaluation of the results do not necessarily reflect the views of the project.

Speaking up for change Children’s and caregivers’ voices for safer online experiences

VOICE Project

In April 2024, ECPAT International, terre des hommes Netherlands and Eurochild together presented the VOICE study in Brussels. In the study, children and parents were asked about their views, opinions and experiences regarding children's safety online. You can find more information in our article here.

Tech Plattforms Used by Online Child Sexual Abuse Offenders

Protect Children

The research report offers an unprecedented insight into the behavioral patterns and habits of online offenders with recommendations for action for platform providers to prevent sexual violence against children online. Further information can be found in our article "Measures required to protect children from sexual violence online".

CSAM Users in the DarkWeb

Redirection Survey Report
Suojellaan Lapsia ry. (Protect Children)

The ReDirection Survey Report reveals unprecedented findings from Protect Children’s surveys in the dark web on CSAM users. This new information is invaluable in enhancing global child protection efforts and strengthening the fight to protect children from sexual violence online.

Estimates of childhood exposure to online sexual harms and their risk factors

WeProtect Global Alliance

This WeProtect Global Alliance study, conducted by Economist Impact (EI), explores the experiences of more than 5,000 18 to 20 year olds who had regular access to the internetas children to understand their experiences of and exposure to online sexual harms during childhood.

4. BIK Policy Map

The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Map was created to compare and exchange knowledge on policy making and implementation in EU Member States on the themes and recommendations of the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children. The fourth report of the series was released in May 2023.

The impact of smart wearables on the decisional autonomy of vulnerable persons

Niël H. Conradie, Sabine Theis, Jutta Croll, Clemens Gruberund Saskia K. Nagel

Smart wearable technologies have seen an explosive growth over recent years. This contribution, undertaken from an explicitly normative and ethical perspective, investigates the potential impact of smart wearables on various dimensions of the decisional autonomy of vulnerable persons.

JIM-Study 2021 - Youth, Information, Media

Baseline Study on media-behaviour of twelve to 19 year olds in Germany

JIM-Study 2021 - Youth, Information, Media

KIM-Study 2020 - Childhood, Internet, Media

Baseline Study on the media usage of six to 13 year olds in Germany
KIM-Study 2020 - Childhood, Internet, Media

MiniKIM-Study 2020 - Young children and media

Basic study on Media Use of 2 to 5-year-olds in Germany
MiniKIM-Study 2020 - Young children and media

Exploring effective prevention education responses to dangerous online challenges

This report on dangerous challenges was authored by Dr Zoe Hilton (Praesidio Safeguarding) with contributions from Professor Gretchen Brion-Meisels and Dr Richard Graham.

The report has been written in consultation with an expert steering group and we would like to thank them for their expert advice and input into this report: Ximena Díaz Alarcón, Professor Amanda Third, Fabiana Vasconcelos, Jutta Croll, Dr. Maura Manca, Anne Collier, Diena Haryana, Karl Hopwood, Stephen Balkam, Linh Phuong Nguyen, Daniela Calvillo Angulo, and Dr. Najla Alnaqbi.

Looking forward: Technological and social change in the lives of European children and young people

Report for the ICT Coalition for Children Online
Blum-Ross, A., Donoso, V., Dinh, T., Mascheroni, G., O’Neill, B., Riesmeyer, C., and Stoilova, M. (2018)., ICT Coalition

The Members of the ICT Coalition for Children Online have recently commissioned a new report on how relationships between technology and the cultural and social practices and institutions that affect children and young people will likely evolve.

August 2018

Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technology

A qualitative study across Europe
Stephane Chaudron, Rosanna Di Gioia, Monica Gemo, EU Science Hub - The European Commission's science and knowledge service

The document reports on results of a cross-national analysis building on data coming from 234 family interviews with both children and parents, carried out from September 2014 until April 2017 in 21 countries.

KidsRights Index 2018 now available - improved methodology!

KidsRights Index

The KidsRights Index boasts improved methodology in 2018, specifically in the domain of Education, which traditionally suffered from data gaps within various key indicators. From 2018 onwards the Education domain is based on the indicator ‘Expected years of schooling’. Moreover, 17 countries that previously were not included in the KidsRights Index due to a lack of data were added to the Index in 2018, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Fiji, San Marino and Sudan.

Kids Online Uruguay: key findings from the new study

Kids Online Uruguay seeks to offer a better understanding of how children access and use the internet, what skills they have, what risks and opportunities they face online, and how they navigate the digital ecosystem. The research involved a national survey with 948 children aged 9 to 17 and their parents; representative of locations of 5,000 or more inhabitants in Uruguay.

Towards a global indicator. On unidentified victims in child sexual exploitation material. Technical Report.

ECPAT International and INTERPOL, ECPAT International und INTERPOL

This report presents the results of a two-part analysis of the multi-country data set contained in the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) Database housed at INTERPOL and of consultations with law enforcement personnel in relation to the identification of victims and offenders pictured in Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) seized by law enforcement around the world.

FIM-Study 2016 - Family, Interaction, Media

Study on communication and media use in families
Sabine Feierabend (SWR Medienforschung), Theresa Plankenhorn (LFK), Thomas Rathgeb (LFK)

The FIM study provides insights into communication and media use in families in Germany. Contents and forms of intra-family communication, communicative patterns of behaviour within the family and media use in the family context are the main focus of this study. Five years after the first FIM study, the FIM study 2016 provides insights into the everyday media life of families with smartphones and mobile Internet. For the FIM Study 2016, all members of around 300 families with children between the age of 3 and 19 were interviewed personally.

JIM-Study 2017 - Youth, Information, (Multi-) Media

Baseline Study on media-behaviour of twelve to 19 year olds in Germany
Sabine Feierabend (SWR Medienforschung), Theresa Plankenhorn (LFK), Thomas Rathgeb (LFK), Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs)

As part of the JIM study 2017, twelve to 19-year-olds in Germany were interviewed in addition to the general use of media and their media dealings with regard to homework, learning and school. Altogether, pupils between the ages of 12 and 19 years estimate that they spend an average of 97 minutes on a weekday with their homework (with and without computer / internet), while girls invest much more time with 115 minutes than boys (80 minutes). Almost half of their learning and homework time (45% and 44 minutes, respectively), the 12 to 19-year-old students work every day at home on the computer or on the internet for school. The digital homework time increases with the age of the young people from a good half hour for the twelve to 13-year-olds to a good hour for the full age students.

Children´s Rights in the German Business Activities

Deutsches Global Compact Netzwerk und Deutsches Komitee für UNICEF e. V.

The rights of children comprise much more areas than child labour in the supply chain, such as family friendly workplaces, product security or marketing. Within the first Germany-wide study on the topic “Children´s Rights in the German Business Activities” 485 companies have been contacted and 100 companies examined with a desktop study.

The Intelligent Risk Management Model

Centre for Child Protection on the Internet, I-KiZ - Zentrum für Kinderschutz im Internet

Based on the findings of the HBI, the I-KiZ works with an Intelligent Risk Management model for youth media protection. The model consists of an age-related concept designed both to avoid confronting children with harmful content and contacts, and to promote strategies to counter and deal with the same.

May 2017

Children´s and young people´s rights in the digital age

a series of articles in the SAGE journal; Vol 19, Issue 5, 2017
SAGE Journal, SAGE Journal

In Vol 19, Issue 5, 2017 of the SAGE Journal in the New Media & Society category, there are a number of contributions to children's rights in the digital age.

February 2017

KIM-Study 2016 - Childhood, Internet, Media

Baseline Study on the media usage of six to 13 year olds in Germany
Sabine Feierabend (SWR Medienforschung), Theresa Plankenhorn (LFK), Thomas Rathgeb (LFK), Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs)

According to their own statements (assessments), 77 percent of all six to 13 year olds rarely use a desktop PC or laptop. The PC is used by all kids at home, and half sits in front of a PC when they are at a friend’s place. Yet, only two fifths use a PC in school. The probability of PC usage in school is significantly higher for older kids going to secondary school (Haupt-/Realschule: 53 %, Gymnasium: 56 %), than for kids going to primary school (27%).

November 2016

JIM-Study 2016 - Youth, Information, (Multi-) Media

Baseline Study on media-behaviour of twelve to 19 year olds in Germany
Sabine Feierabend (SWR Medienforschung), Theresa Plankenhorn (LFK), Thomas Rathgeb (LFK), Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs)

Within the JIM-Study in 2016, twelve to 19 year olds in Germany were interviewed about their media-behaviour, with regards to homework, learning and school. It also dealt with regulations regarding mobile phones and WLAN at school.

Global Kids Online

Researching on children's rights in the digital age
UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, London School of Economics and Political Science

Global Kids Online is an international research project that aims to generate and sustain a rigorous cross-national evidence base around children’s use of the internet by creating a global network of researchers and experts.