Active Participation or Just More Information?

This report examines factors that influence how children and teenagers who are part of "the internet generation" relate to the internet. The authors mention that increasingly there is recognition that children and teenagers should be active in debates and decisions that affect them. While this may be the case, teenagers describe politics as "boring, dull, irrelevant to them."

The report is supported by a broad definition of online participation as it reviews how children and young people approach a range of social, political and civic information on the internet. The report examines peer-to-peer connections and seeks to have young people "go beyond the content provided for them by others and to seek out, select and judge, even to create content for themselves as part of a community of actors that is bigger than any individual."

The report relies on a variety of qualitative research methods carried out by The UK Children Go Online (UKCGO). Some of the methods include: qualitative research of 14 focus group interviews with 9-19 year olds; nine family visits and in-home observations; a children’s online panel; a major national, in-home, 40-minute face to face survey of 1,511 9-19 year olds and 906 parents of the 9-17 year olds, using Random Location sampling across the UK; and fieldwork, conducted via multi-media computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) with children.

The authors regard the internet as an opportunity for young people because the internet brings democracy to the masses as well as helps citizens become actively engaged in the political process. The UKCGO survey findings show that in general, "boys, middle class children and teenagers are more likely than girls, working class children and younger children to engage in online communication, information-seeking and peer-to-peer connection." The report indicates that there are some exceptions, and one notable one is "that girls are more likely than boys to visit civic/political sites."

The authors bring special attention to this point in the report when they state "crucially, however, the path analysis has suggested that increasing levels of self-efficacy and online experience may enhance interaction online over and above the effect of demographic variables, but it is unlikely to result in greater visiting of civic sites."

Report findings suggest that there is a positive transfer of skills and interests across online activities "providing some moderate support for the possibility that young people who engage with the interactive potential of the internet become drawn into a greater range of participation, including visiting civic and political websites.

The report indicates that "it appears that online interactivity and, particularly, online creativity can be encouraged through the very experience of using the internet. The same is less the case for visiting civic websites because here the key determinants of visiting such websites prove to be demographic – age, gender and social class. This suggests that young people’s motivation to pursue civic interests online depends on their background and their socialisation, and it is not affected by the amounts of time spent or levels of expertise online."

The following are findings from the report that suggest some ways forward for youth online civic participation:

• Design links from popular/entertainment sites to civic/political sites, especially to counteract the tendency of entertainment sites to be 'sticky', keeping users on the site rather than encouraging their further exploration of the web.
• Develop a more genuinely interactive environment in which young people's contributions are responded to appropriately in such a way that further participation can ensue and that clear benefits are on offer.
• Address the rather dull and worthy appearance of civic sites to ensure a 'youth-friendly' appeal that does not undermine young people’s desire to be, and to be seen to be, 'cool'.
• Link online participation into curriculum activities in school so that - as for creating personal homepages - other forms of participation can also be encouraged by the school (whose key advantage is that of providing skills and support on a more equal basis than exists between young people in the home).
• Consider ways to encourage younger children to participate - noting that the 9-11 year olds were the most keen, but felt the least skilled, in creating their own content.
• Address the risks encountered by young people in using the internet and, especially, parental concerns over these risks, so that both children and parents feel confident in exploring the potential of the internet safely
• Target interventions particularly at those who appear disengaged, in order that online opportunities do not exacerbate current levels of digital exclusion.