Understanding children and young people as digital citizens

• Main Authors: Aldrich, Richard, Ayllón, Sara, Barbovschi, Monica, Barbuta, Alina, Brugarolas, Pablo, Casamassima, Gianna, Drossel, Kerstin, Eickelmann, Birgit, Gosme, Elizabeth, Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk, Holmarsdottir, Halla Bjørk, Hyggen, Christer, Lado, Samuel, Lafton, Tove, Kapella, Olaf, Karatzogianni, Athina, Kazani, Aggeliki, Labusch, Amelie, Mifsud, Louise, Olabode, Shola, Parsanoglou, Dimitris, Roth, Maria, Schmidt, Eva-Maria, Shorey, Holly, Sisask, Merike, Symeonaki, Maria, Teidla-Kunitsõn, Gertha, Zinoveva, Liudmila
• Format: Report
• Language: Norwegian

The DigiGen project address the impact of technological transformations on the Digital Generation – of children’s and young people’s everyday lives focusing on the domains of home (family), their leisure time, education, and their civic participation. Our goal has been to uncover both the harmful and beneficial effects of digitalization on children and young people’s skills and competence, wellbeing, involvement in bullying/harassment, level of trust and processes of democratization. This is achieved through uncovering in what ways children and young people use digital technology and with whom they interact, in what ways digital technology is meaningful to them and how digital technology may be seen as enabling or disabling their wants and needs. For this purpose, the project has developed a conceptual model to understand children’s and young people’s shaping of digital technology within and across the domains of their everyday lives, labelling these domains the digital ecosystems. The model considers the vulnerability and risks that the younger generation face but also the competence-building, skill-enhancing creativity brought forth by their own initiative and agency. Through the active involvement of children and young people, the project has been designed to generate insights that have the potential to impact upon developing effective policies and practices across Europe. Furthermore, the inclusion of children and young people as co-researchers has allowed us to uncover what is meaningful to them when using digital technology and what is less meaningful. This working paper builds on extensive qualitative data collected in 2020-2022 through individual interviews, focus group interviews and observation from 588 children and young people aged 5 to 18 in eight European countries, in addition to secondary analyses of existing databases on European children’s and young people’s well-being highlighted through their use of digital technology. Also, parents,teachers and other stakeholders have been interviewed. The analyses of qualitative data in this report have been prepared by scoping reviews of existing literature within each of the four domains. Following three years of research on the impact of digital transformations on children and youth, DigiGen has developed recommendations for policy and practice, acknowledging the need for proper governance distribution to support children in the digital era: through regulation, industry self-regulation, and civil s