Report on children and IT from the Swedish helpline BRIS
2010-06-08 13:46
Share this!
BRIS (Children’s Rights in Society) is a children’s rights NGO running the national helpline for children in Sweden, co-funded by the European Commission. For the fourth consecutive year, BRIS has published The Children, BRIS and IT 2010. The report concerns BRIS as an actor on the Internet, and young people’s contacts with BRIS about the Internet, computers and mobile phones.
The report describes BRIS’ web-based services for young people, and what children and young people tell BRIS about their everyday lives with the Internet, computers and mobile phones. One of the report’s objectives is to increase knowledge among adults about children’s use of IT.
In its web-based support services (the BRIS -mail, the BRIS -chat and the BRIS Forum), BRIS had more than 40,000 contacts with children and young people in 2009. The number of supportive contacts with the BRIS -chat more than doubled in 2009, while the BRIS-mail declined significantly and the BRIS Forum was roughly unchanged. The IT-related questions in these web-based support services increased sharply in 2009 compared with the year before. Young people mainly use the Internet, computers and mobile phones for the regular, daily handling of friendships and love. Described problems and worries are the relative anonymity, pictures, videos and webcams.
This year, BRIS noted that more children described having or having had contact with important adults over the Internet or by text messaging. The young people mentioned contacts with, for instance, psychologists, teachers, mentors and social workers. At the same time, it is clear that the young people’s need for contact with important adults in this manner is still far greater than the possibilities offered.
Download The Children, BRIS and IT 2010 here or BRIS website: www.bris.se/english
This report is a part of The Young Internet project, which is partially funded by the European Union and run by the Swedish Media Council in cooperation with BRIS and is about the safer use of the Internet among children and young people.