Cookies?
Library Header Image
LSE Research Online LSE Library Services

Social networking among European children: new findings on privacy, identity and connection

Livingstone, Sonia ORCID: 0000-0002-3248-9862, Mascheroni, Giovanna and Murru, M.F. (2011) Social networking among European children: new findings on privacy, identity and connection. Hermès, 59. pp. 89-98. ISSN 0767-9513

[img]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Version
Download (379kB) | Preview

Identification Number: 10.4267/2042/45342

Abstract

Social networking is arguably the fastest growing online activity among youth people. This article presents new pan-European findings from the EU Kids Online project on how children and young people navigate the peer-to-peer networking possibilities afforded by social networking sites, based on a survey of around 25,000 children (1000 children in each of 25 countries). In all, 59 % of European 9-16 year olds who use the internet have their own social networking profile. Despite popular anxieties of lives lived indiscriminately in public, half have fewer than fifty contacts, most contacts are people already known to the child in person, and over two thirds have their profiles either private or partially private. The focus of the analysis, then, is to understand when and why some children seek wider circles of online contacts, and why some favour self-disclosure rather than privacy. Demographic differences among children, cultural factors across countries, and the specific affordances of social networking sites are all shown to make a difference in shaping the particularities of children’s online practices of privacy, identity and connection.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.iscc.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique235
Additional Information: © 2011 Institut des sciences de la communication du CNRS
Divisions: Media and Communications
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Date Deposited: 01 Sep 2014 08:32
Last Modified: 13 Apr 2024 06:36
Projects: EU Kids Online
Funders: EC (DG Information Society) Safer Internet Programme (project code SIP-KEP-321803)
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/59302

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics