Apestaartjaren: digital media among youngsters
The bi-annual report, a collaboration between Mediawijs, Mediaraven and imec-mict-UGent, provides a detailed overview of the digital lifestyle of children and teenagers, ages 6-18 years.
- Media monitoring
- Youth's media use
Project description
Contemporary children and teenagers are avid users of digital media technologies. These technologies bring both risks and opportunities to the lives of young people. Therefore, it is important to monitor children and teenagers’ digital lives. Such monitoring provides stakeholders such as academics, but also parents, educators, and youth organizations, with relevant information that can support them in making evidence-based decisions.
The Apestaartjaren project addresses this need for evidence by organizing a bi-annual monitoring of children and teenagers’ digital lives. The project entails an online survey that is administered in the school context among a representative sample of Flemish children and teenagers. The project is a collaboration of research group imec-mict-UGent with non-profit organizations Mediawijs and Mediaraven.
Aims of the knowledge centre
Apestaartjaren consists of a bi-annual monitoring of a representative sample of 3000+ Flemish primary and secondary school pupils. Goal is to generate knowledge on their usage and possession of digital mediaT. Moreover, the quantitative data is supplemented with face-to-face interviews.
Apestaartjaren monitors:
- which digital media technologies children and teenagers use
- how they use these technologies
- which risks and opportunities they perceive and experience in relation to digital technologies
- which inequalities there are in relation to the former issues.
Besides a general study, each edition also covers a specific domain (e.g. media literacy, civic engagement, …).
Outcomes
The outcomes of this study are presented at a seminar and presented in a (Dutch) downloadable report.
Role of mict
We at imec-mict-UGent are proud to participate in this project, and we will:
- Provide scientfic support in the questionnaire
- Analyse the data
Project details
Partners: Apestaartjaren is a joint research effort with Mediawijs and Mediaraven.
Duration: Every 2 years
Contact: dr. Kristin Van Damme