This repository is a database of recent and ongoing empirical projects regarding children and the internet in Europe. Our aim is to provide a public resource for researchers and practitioners in this field in which studies are identified and information about them can be readily searched and accessed. Click here for the Collection Policy that describes what is included and not included in this repository.
Note that certain quality criteria have guided these decisions (see Quality Control). We cannot, however, guarantee that all research included here is of the highest quality. Each project is described in terms of its basic features - sample, methods, topics researched, countries studied, publication details, and so forth. Details of this process can be found in the Coding Framework. These features may be used to search the database, or a free text search can be conducted.
Help us make this repository even better! We invite anyone to inform us of additional research projects that could be included in this repository in order to make it more comprehensive, and hence a more useful resource. Please send details of any additional research to the national contacts of EU Kids Online, as listed here, or to the coordinating UK team (L.G.Haddon@lse.ac.uk). We also welcome any corrections to the material in the repository.
We hope this is a valuable resource for researchers and all those concerned with children's online safety.
Quality control
Entries for the data repository have been selected by the national teams participating in the EU Kids Online project, and they refer to research published in many different languages. Certain minimum requirements have been imposed, as follows.
- A report is available (paper or electronic) that details (1) the methodology followed (with sufficient information to code the project and to evaluate it as competent and valuable) and (2) the data/findings obtained (with sufficient information to permit basic reporting of relevant statistics, observations or other findings).
- This generally includes peer-reviewed academic publications, most academic conference presentations, many but not all commercial and public policy reports, some market research surveys (though often only an executive summary or brief statement of findings is available) and a few press releases (as some may include detailed statistics plus a note on survey methodology).
- Each national team is responsible for collecting material relevant to its own country. The UK team also collects research under the heading of 'European research' and 'International research' (i.e. research that includes a European country as part of a broader project).
- All those who enter research into the repository apply a basic quality control test, and exclude material that does not meet this test. The test follows national or international standards in terms of data collection, analysis and reporting (i.e. if the research has been, or could have been, published in a national academic journal, or presented at a national academic conference, this meets the standard). The test should not exclude any research that might be discussed in policy or public forums, but nor should the repository include anything that the research community would consider unsatisfactory as a report of 'empirical research'.
- Where the contributing team has concerns regarding the quality of an entry, but considers on balance that is it worthy of inclusion, comments will be added under the headings 'comment on the quality of the methods' or 'other comments', as appropriate.
EU Kids Online aims to provide access to empirical research projects known to or discussed within academic, policy and public forums. It does not guarantee that all such projects are of a high standard. We welcome any comments or questions regarding the quality of material, or description therefore, included in the repository, and will reconsider/amend entries as appropriate.