| dc.description.abstract | SummaryThis report is part of the project "A digital childhood", supported by The Programme on Welfare Research, the Research Council of Norway. The project participants come from The University of Oslo, SINTEF (The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology), and NOVA (Norwegian Social Research). In addition there is a reference group consisting of members of the European Internet project SAFT (Safety, Awareness, Facts and Tools), the Ombudsman for children in Norway and "BarneVakten" (a media monitoring organisation aiming to protect children). The project spans three years, through the end of 2004. The purpose of the project "A digital childhood" is to survey children and youths use of new media technologies; that is PCs, TV-games and mobile phones.The results in this report are based on the survey "Young in Norway 2002", also financed by The Programme on Welfare Research, the Research Council of Norway. The survey consists of questionnaire replies from approximately 12 000 youths in secondary school, in the age groups 13-15 and 16-19, from all over Norway. The approach is divided. Firstly, we wanted to survey the youths use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), to see if we found different usage depending on sex, age, ethnicity and the parents level of education. Secondly, we wanted to see if there were other characteristics typical of youth who use different types of ICT. I have concentrated on school grades, leisure-time activities and various measures of risky behaviour.The results show that the use of PCs is very common, but with a clear difference between the sexes, less when it comes to age and ethnic background. Nearly all the youths had a PC at home (95%), while slightly fewer had Internet access at home (83%). Over half of the youths had a TV in their room, about one third had TV-games and a PC in their room, and one fifth had their own Internet connection. The share with TV-games and PCs in their rooms is nevertheless clearly higher among the boys. 95 percent of the boys and 88 percent of the girls used PCs outside of school. However, there is a far larger number of boys (54%) than of girls (26%) who stated that they were daily users. When it comes to the use of PCs at school, this was more common in the age group 16-19 (87%) than the age group 13-15 (65%). There were also more boys than girls who used PCs at school. If one looks at the combined use of PCs at school and at home, only four percent of the youths said that they never used a PC.If one looks at what the youths used the PC for, searching for information on the Internet was the most widespread activity, with little difference between the sexes. To play computer games was the most popular activity among the boys. This is also where we found the biggest difference between the sexes. One third of the boys aged 13-15 played computer games every day, against only 4 percent of the girls. 10 percent of the boys in the age group 13-15, who played computer games, played for more than four hours a day. With regards to communication over the Internet, a higher number of youths sent e-mails, compared to the share who said they were chatting. There was little difference between the sexes. However, the boys spent much more time chatting. It was also more common among boys both to download music from the Internet, to draw or work with photos on the PC and to use the PC to make their own programmes or demos. Most youths had their own mobile phones, although it was a little more common among the girls. The girls sent and received more text messages, while the boys made more calls.Did we find differences between Norwegian youths and youths with an ethnic background?With regards to the differences between children with Norwegian born parents and children with parents born abroad, there were not unexpectedly fewer children of immigrants who had their own PC and Internet connection at home. There were nevertheless several children of immigrants who did have their own PC in their room. We also found that girls with an immigrant background were more frequently surfing on and downloading music from the Internet. There were also more immigrant girls who spent time on a more advanced use of the computer, such as working with photos and making their own computer programmes. As far as having their own mobile phone is concerned, this was less common among children of immigrants, especially among the girls.What do the youths choose to play? The boys played mostly sports games, action games and strategy games, while the girls mostly played smaller games on the Internet, car games, platform games and The Sims. We also found that the popularity of the different games depended on age, parallel with the fact that fewer played. The most frequent players among the boys (more than four hours every day) mostly played first person shooting games and strategy games.Is there a connection between the frequent playing of violent computer games and violent behaviour? Mainly, we found only one connection between violent behaviour and the category of action and fighting games, showing that violent youth also choose violent games. Surprisingly enough, we did not find the same connection with first person shooting games, which often are more violent than action games. The link between the playing of action games and violent behaviour was stronger among girls than among boys.Is there a connection between the pupils use of computers and school grades, and between the pupils use of computers and their parents level of education? Mainly, we found that the more the pupils used computers, the better their grades were, and the higher their parents level of education. However, there was a large variation between the different activities. The most able pupils, and the ones whose parents had the highest education, sent e-mails more often, did their homework on a PC more often and collected more information from the Internet. The less able pupils, who had parents with a lower education, played TV-games more often. This strengthens the impression that it is the most competent pupils who are engaged in the activities which most enhance general competence. The results confirm Frønes (2002) point that both the education level of their parents and the pupils abilities are reflected in the way the children use their PCs.Is it correct that the more time you spend in front of the computer screen, the less time you have to spend with friends? Those who stood out by spending less time out with friends, were the daily users in the age group 16-19, and girls who dont use computers. There was no such connection in the age group 13-15. There was no link between the general use of PCs and the number of nights spent indoors with friends. We also found that the reply to this question depended on type of usage. The more girls played TV-games, the less time they spent with friends. For the boys there was surprisingly enough no connection, despite the fact that many boys spent several hours every day playing PC-games. Also, the more often pupils in the age group 16-19 sent e-mails, the fewer nights they spent out with friends. However, we got the opposite result when it came to TV-games and chatting; the more the youths played TV-games, and the more often they chatted, the larger the number of nights that were spent with friends. The exception was the ones who chatted on a daily basis. They spent fewer days with friends than the other users. Nevertheless, they still did not spend fewer nights with friends than the ones who did not chat or play TV-games. The results show then, that if there is a connection, it indicates that the more often the youths use the PC, the more socially active they are.Is there reason to be concerned about youths who meet people in real life, after first having established contact via the Internet? And how common is this? One third of the youths stated that they had met someone in real life, after first having established contact via the Internet. This was most common among the boys in the age group 13-15, but among the girls in the age group 16-19. The 13-15 boys who had had such encounters were the ones who stood out the most compared to the rest of the youths. They led a lifestyle that to a much larger degree was characterized by risky behaviour, intoxication, depression, and a bad relationship with their parents. The girls in the age group 16-19 who had met someone, stood out by skipping school more often, staying out at night without their parents knowing their whereabouts, and they drank alcohol more often. Among the boys aged 16-19 and the girls aged 13-15, there were only minor differences. Hence, the results show that among the boys in the age group 13-15, many of those who are drawn to this activity are youths belonging to a problem group already at risk, and thus there is reason for concern.Is there reason to be concerned for the extreme users of text messages and chatting? The extreme users in this case were the five percent of the youths who sent more than 20 text messages every day, and the five percent who were chatting more than two hours every single day. We found that the extreme users of chat in the age group 13-15 to a larger extent said that they had a lifestyle typically oriented towards going out and being with friends. They spent more nights out with friends, they drank more alcohol, were far more sexually experienced, and were more depressive, compared to the rest of the youths. This was more evident among the boys than among the girls. With regards to the extreme users of chat in the age group 16-19, the opposite was the case. Here too, a slightly higher number were depressive, but among the boys they drank less alcohol, and spent less time out with friends.The extreme users of text messages (SMS) spent much more time with friends, they drank alcohol far more often, were far more sexually experienced and more depressive. Time spent with friends was a point standing out more clearly among girls than among boys, while intoxication frequency and the share who were sexually experienced stood more out among boys than among girls. The results were also far clearer for the age group 13-15, compared to the age group 16-19. | en |
