A cross-national European analysis of press coverage of children and the internet

This comparative study of national press coverage of children and the internet was part of the
larger project EU Kids Online, itself a cross-national study of research on online children's
experiences1. This project was funded by the EC's Safer Internet plus Programme and hence one
of the key goals is to inform policy and stakeholders interested in online risks to children.
Other workpackages within the project had explored the availability of research existing in this
field (work package 1, Staksrud et al, 2009) and patterns of children's experience online (work
package 3, Hasebrink et al, 2009). But one general goal of the EU Kids online project was to try to
explain any differences in national experiences. Specificlly, it was important to understand both
why patterns of research existed (followed up in work package 2, Stald and Haddon, 2008), as
well as why children's experiences varied (part of work package 3).
Hence, those working on these questions in work packages 1 and 2, considered a range of
contextual factors such as the development of the internet in different countries, the regulatory
framework and law enforcement, the role of government, NGO awareness-raising and media
literacy initiatives, the educational levels and arrangements, etc (in Hasebrink et al, 2009).
Amongst these potential influences on children's experiences was the role of media coverage in
this field. Stald and Haddon (2008) explored equivalent contextual factors in trying to explain the
social shaping of research. This, too, included the media.
The problem was that, unlike some areas where there are internationally comparative statistics, or
at least comparative analyses2, there is no such material showing variations in national media
coverage of children and the internet. Hence, some of the national teams participating in EU kids
Online conducted this exploratory project, with a content analysis of the press in 14 countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal,
Slovenia, Spain and the UK.