Insights into existing studies and data on children’s online experiences
According to UNICEF(opens in new window), a child goes online for the first time every half a second – highlighting the growing upward trend. While the internet provides numerous benefits in terms of education and entertainment, it is also a place that comes with risks. To understand the challenges of digital technology, there is a wide variety of research on young users and online media; however, they are often heterogeneous and in parts contradictory. Addressing this, the EU-funded CO:RE(opens in new window) project set out to develop a tailored pan-European knowledge platform, known as the CO:RE Knowledge Base, on how children and young people behave and interact online as well as the risks they may encounter. “Our aim was to create and implement a one-stop shop for researchers, as well as educational and policy stakeholders, for information and empirical evidence on children and youth in the digital age,” explains Claudia Lampert, project coordinator. CO:RE worked to ‘build bridges’ between research and practice by facilitating access to research on young people and their online use, including by motivating researchers to participate in building and expanding the evidence base. “We also want to make research understandable and usable for practice, to identify research gaps and needs, and to make empirically based findings available to policymakers – and all of this, of course, in an agile and sustainable way,” adds Lampert.
Introducing the CO:RE Knowledge Base Platform
CO:RE provides a comprehensive knowledge base that is aimed at addressing the needs of different stakeholder groups. “In the design of the online platform, it was important to us to have different access options for different user groups, such as researchers and young scholars, educators and teachers, or policymakers and advisors, so that they can browse the CO:RE Knowledge Base for the content that might be of particular interest to them,” notes Lampert. The content can be accessed via the target group, individual elements like the Evidence Base(opens in new window), or the different toolkits or topics, for instance via the ‘Latest news’ section. In the CO:RE Evidence Base and the Data Directory(opens in new window), there are more than 1 800 annotated publication entries and over 1 300 annotated study entries, all published since 2014 in Europe. “Key findings have been translated into English. In this way, the research findings and possible recommendations for action are made accessible and usable for researchers and decision-makers. Furthermore, the CO:RE Knowledge Base offers various other resources, e.g. toolkits on theories, methods and, for education stakeholders, a compass for research ethics and a policy directory,” reports Lampert. Additionally, there are short reports and blog posts that address a variety of subjects, such as online risks, digital skills and well-being. “All these resources serve as a good starting point for further research and discussions on children and the use of the internet,” adds Lampert.
Providing a solid, high-quality, evidence-based framework for children
Having laid the groundwork, the project’s efforts focus on motivating stakeholders to use the platform and its features and to contribute to its development, for instance, by sending feedback or questions on current issues. “We are convinced that the CO:RE Knowledge Base is a significant step forward in providing a solid, high-quality, evidence-based framework for children growing up in digitalised societies,” concludes Lampert.