Children in the family: the Internet usage

Infâncias, crianças e internet: desafios na era digital

Fund. Gulbenkian, 23-24 Nov 09

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Children in the family:

the Internet usage

Ana Nunes de Almeida (ICS-UL)

Nuno de Almeida Alves (CIES-ISCTE)

Ana Delicado (ICS-UL)

Infância, crianças e internet: desafios na era digitalFund. C. Gulbenkian, 23-24 Nov 09

Starting points…

Portugal entered late into modernity. A high speed

mode

But change is not just..

• a one dimension, a linear process

• a clear cut before-after. Past embodies the present.

• a deducible copy: from the centre to the periphery, from

the upper to the lower levels of society

a multidimensional present



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Starting points…

1. Internet at home: an intense and recent adoption

2. Families with children: the leaders of domestic

technological innovation

• Educative mobilization, conjugal family -schooling central in family strategies

• Children’s safety: the home as an attractive media environment

The focus today…

• Family context and the child internet

usage

• Family as a (re)producer of digital divides

• Dimensions:

• the form

• the position in the social

structure (parents’ level of

education, social class)



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The research project

• Portuguese children’s practices,

appropriations, representations about the

internet

• 1st stage: survey of school children, May-June 2008; public and private schools; 4th, 6th and 9th grades (8-17 years old); N=3039

2nd stage: interviews with children (150), parents (50) and teachers (50)

RESULTS

1. Morphology



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The type of household



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Co-residing siblings



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RESULTS

2. Family social position

Level of education



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Social class



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Final remarks

1. Technology essentialist views vs. “context

matters”

2. Family forms and social position

introduce and explain diversity –

children and generations

3. Internet at home: technological families

vs. generational gap

Documents

Children in the family: the Internet usage