Youth. Revisiting policy dilemmas in internet safety in the context of children's rights
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Among the different myths that circulate within policy discussions of internet safety, two are especially prevalent. The myth of innocence (Meyer, 2007) which promotes the image of the child-as-victim in need of adult supervision and regulation (Jenks, 1996; Livingstone, 2002), and its counterpart, the myth of the competent cyber-kid, both fail to capture the nuances of the various situations and roles children might find themselves in when using the internet. The first approach positions the child only in the role as passive recipient of content, without taking into consideration numerous situations where children play an active role or may even initiate problematic conduct online (e.g. cyber-bullying). The latter does not take into account children’s incomplete social development and inability to assess complex social situations (including those online). The present chapter deals with the cleavage between the two approaches, namely the protectionist versus the participation approach, as articulated through various European policy documents and pits them against the data collected by the EU Kids Online II project (2009-2011) about children’s use of the internet and risks encountered online |
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