Excessive internet use in EU Kids Online project
Lukas Blinka
Youth on the Net: Find Your Balance, Luxembourg, May 2014
Background
 EU Kids Online examines European children’s
experience of the internet
 In particular it focuses on areas that those


developing policy and academics have defined as
potentially problematic - these are discussed in
terms of risks (of harm)
Summaries of these studies are available in a public
database – see www.eukidsonline.net
EU Kids Online I conducted a review of over 400
European studies
Classifying risks (exemplars)
Content
Contact
Conduct
Child as receiver
Child as participant
Child as actor
(of mass productions) (adult-initiated activity)
(perpetrator / victim)
Aggressive
Violent / gory content Harassment, stalking
Bullying, hostile
peer activity
Sexual
Pornographic
content
‘Grooming’, sexual
Sexually
abuse or exploitation harassment,
‘sexting’
Values
Racist / hateful
content
Ideological persuasion Potentially harmful
user-generated
content
Commercial
Embedded
marketing
Personal data
misuse
Gambling, copyright
infringement
Note: risks in bold are included in the survey
EU Kids Online II:
Surveying ‘Europe’
 Random stratified sample
 1000 9-16 year olds per
country
 Interviews at home, faceto-face
 Self-completion for
sensitive questions
 Data from child paired with
a parent
EU Kids Online II:
Surveying ‘Europe’
 Validation via
cognitive/pilot testing
 National stakeholders
consulted
 International advisory
panel
 Directly comparable
across countries
 Data collection in
spring/summer 2010
EU Kids Online II: consortium
EU Kids Online III
 3 year project, 33 members
 Collecting and analysing more European studies
(continues EU kids Online I)
 Analysing the dataset from EU Kids Online II including comparisons outside the EU (Australia,
Brazil, Russia)
Conducting cross-national qualitative studies

 AND netchildrengomobile.eu
EU Kids Online II
 the first generation who has grown up completely in
a digital era
 spend more time online compared to adults and use
the Internet regularly compared to adults
 are engaged more in intensive online applications
(SNS, online gaming)
 the adolescence is formative for life-styles, misuse

of the Internet can be more harmful than in later
periods of life
In most Europen countries almost 100% children had
used the internet already in 2010
What is excessive internet use?
 salience - preoccupation by the internet use (both cognitive and
behavioural)
 significant mood changes in form of both the euphoria when
getting/being online and withdrawal symptoms when unable to be
online
 tolerance - spending an increasing amount of time online
 intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts due to the internet use
 a lack of success to limit the behaviour – relapse and reinstatement
 M. Griffiths (2006) – The components model of addiction
Excessive internet use scale
Salience
I have gone without eating and sleeping
because of the internet
Withdrawal
symptoms
I have felt bothered when I cannot be on
the internet
Tolerance
I have caught myself surfing when I am
not really interested
Relapse
I have tried unsuccessfully to spend less
time on the internet
Conflict
I have spent less time than I should with
either family, friends or doing schoolwork
because of time I spend on the internet
Excessive internet use scale
 Subsample 11-16 year olds (M = 13.5), N = 18 709
 4-point response scale
Very often- fairly often-not very often-never/almost
never
 Internal consistency - Cronbach’s alpha = 0.767
 Index as a mean value M = 1.48, SD = 0.54
Number of EIU indicators out
of 5 – by gender and age
EIU index distribution in per cent
60.00
50.00
2010
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
2.25
2.5
2.75
3
3.25
3.5
3.75
4
EIU index distribution in per cent
60.00
50.00
2010
2013
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
2.25
2.5
2.75
3
3.25
3.5
3.75
4
Changes in mean of EIU in
selected countries
2010
2013
Relative
differences*
Denmark (DK)
1.48
1.71
16%
Ireland (IE)
Italy (IT)
Romania (RO)
1.62
1.27
1.5
1.69
1.36
1.77
4%
7%
17%
United Kingdom (UK)
1.62
1.79
11%
All five countries
1.49
1.66
11%
* Differences in bold are statistically significant at the 95% level
empirical model
Social-Demographics
and personal
characteristics
Age; gender; family
type; family socioeconomical status
Psycho-behavioral
difficulties
Self-esteem; selfcontrol; emotional
difficulties; conduct
problmes
Media usage
Time online; SNS use,
online games use;
digital skills, using
smart phones
Excessive
Internet use
power of predictors in EU countries Beta >0.3 high relation, Beta
= 0.2 to 0.3 middle relation, Beta = 0.09 to 0.2 low relation, empty
cell = not significant value
Emotional Sensation Conduct
problems seeking problems
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
low
low
Czech Rep.
low
low
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Lithuania
middle
low
middle
low
low
low
low
low
low
Netherlands
low
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
UK
middle
low
Risky
Sexual
offline
Exposure
behaviour
low
low
low
low
low
low
low
low
low
low
low
middle
low
low
middle
middle
low
middle
low
low
low
low
middle
low
low
low
middle
low
low
low
middle
low
middle
low
low
middle
low
low
low
low
low
−low
low
low
low
−low
low
middle
low
low
low
−low
−middle
middle
low
middle
low
low
middle
low
low
low
low
−low
low
Gender
low
low
low
low
low
Age
low
low
low
low
middle
low
Meeting
online Cyberbulling Sexting
strangers
low
low
high
low
low
low
low
middle
low
low
low
Time online and EIU
 Time spent online and EIU are correlated = .320, p < .01
 When controlled for other variables, Beta = .123, p < .01
 High time spent online is related to EIU, but they are not
synonymous!
 EIU covers quality of internet usage rather than mere
quantity
Who are the „addicts“?
 Problematic to establish clear cut off points
 Theoretical vs statistical approach
 Grouping based on std. dev. technique – 3 groups created
 Normal users – mean distribution up to two std. dev. 94.2% (N =
17.378)
 At risk – more than 2 std. dev. from sample mean 4.4% (N = 820)
 Excessive users – more than 3 std. dev. from sample mean 1.4% (N =
253)
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1.25
1.5
1.75
2
2.25
2.5
2.75
3
3.25
3.5
3.75
4
Compared to „normal“, the „at
risks“ and „excessive users“:
 Have more emotional difficulties
 Have more self-control and attentional difficulties
 Have more frequent conduct problems
 Their parents are using the internet slightly less
 At risks:
 Have more online activities and higher digital literacy
 Spend slightly more time online
 Excessive users:
 Play computer games very frequently
 No effect in variables like gender, age, family type, frequent useof
FaceBook, smartphone use
Compared to „abusive“, the
„addicted“ are:
 Playing more online games and spending time in
virtual worlds
 Have more self-control and attentional difficulties
THANK YOU!
For more info:
LUKASBLINKA@GMAIL.COM
&
EUKUDSONLINE.NET