EU Kids Online III

To ensure that policy developments regarding children’s online safety are soundly evidence-based, a third phase of the EU Kids Online network is proposed. Building on its successful track record, the network will update, widen and deepen its work, bringing together social scientists and experts

in the field of child internet use, risk and safety in order to stimulate and coordinate investigation into the way that children and young people use digital, convergent, mobile and online media.

The result will be both a proactive and a responsive resource, strengthening the evidence base and informing policy developments in Europe and beyond.

In its first phase, the network identified and critically evaluated the findings of 400 research studies, drawing substantive, methodological and policy-relevant conclusions. In its second phase, the network has surveyed children and parents across Europe. In the third phase, the network will provide a focal point for new findings and critical evaluations of new media uses, focusing on the

consequences of the changing risk environment (technological, social) and developing practices of safety mediation (by parents, schools, industry, third sector, children). This will provide the bases for an active dialogue with stakeholders about priority areas of concern for child online safety.

EU Kids Online III will widen its work by including all member states, undertaking international comparisons with countries outside the European Union, and extending its engagement – proactively and responsively - with policy stakeholders and internet safety initiatives. It will deepen its work through targeted hypothesis testing of the European dataset, testing innovative

research methodologies for the nature and meaning of children’s online risk experiences, and conducting longitudinal comparisons of findings where available. It will update its online database to produce timely updates on the latest knowledge about new and emerging issues.