CHILDREN ARE MEDIA AWARE

A NEW book published on June 27 highlights how media aware today’s European children are, and that British children spend much more time watching TV and much less time reading or playing outdoors than their European counterparts.
The book, ‘Children and their Changing Media Environment’, edited by Sonia Livingstone and Moira Bovill, follows their UK research last year, produced in association with the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC).
Under the direction of Professor Livingstone at the London School of Economics and Political Science, academic research teams in the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland conducted comprehensive national surveys during 1997/8 with a total of 15,000 young people aged six to 17 across Europe, using the same agreed upon survey questions.
Across the 12 countries, the book compares media and Information Communication Technology environments (ICT). Similarities and differences were noted, including: TV dominates across Europe, with young people watching on average over two hours a day; The Netherlands and the Nordic countries have most ICT at home and in school. Nordic countries emerge as ‘pioneers of new technologies’. Germany lags in both, while the UK is ‘ahead’ in terms of PC use in school, but behind in home PC access. Classroom use is a problem for many teachers across Europe; British children spend on average five hours per day using media. Compared with others in Europe, they are the most likely to say that there is not enough for someone their age to do in the area where they live (83 per cent of British 15-16 year olds say this compared with only 53 per cent of Dutch children of this age).
Professor Livingstone said: "This is the first time young people across Europe have been surveyed for their use of new media. What is striking is that, despite all the hype, new forms of media are mainly supplementing, not replacing, more familiar media. There are, however, some worrying differences in access to PCs and the internet, with a digital divide evident both within and across countries. As schools offer an increasingly important solution to the digital divide, more efforts are needed to get the home/school link right." (CD)