Children Online: Research and Evidence - A knowledge base on children and youth in the digital world

Project Information

CO:RE

Grant agreement ID: 871018

DOI

10.3030/871018

Project closed

EC signature date 24 October 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 1 722 756,75

EU contribution

€ 1 722 756,75

Coordinated by

LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR MEDIENFORSCHUNG/HANS-BREDOW-INSTITUT
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CO:RE (Children Online: Research and Evidence - A knowledge base on children and youth in the digital world)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Research and evidence on children and online media are extensive, yet often heterogeneous and in parts contradictory. To coordinate research, education and policymaking activities across EU Member States and Associated Countries and disseminate and share existing knowledge, CO:RE aims at developing a tailored pan-European knowledge platform (CO:RE Knowledge Base) on how children and young people behave and interact online as well as the risks they may encounter.
The CO:RE Knowledge Base (KB) seeks to enable stakeholders to share existing knowledge, fill research gaps, build capacities and work towards a consensual framework for future work in research, education and policymaking.
The overall objectives of the CO:RE project are
1-Providing an overview of research and evidence on children’s experiences online published between 2014 and 2020
2-Enabling access to empirical data from the EU Kids Online network (2018-2019)
3-Distributing policy recommendations
4-Offering resources for researchers and educators

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first half of the project duration, CO:RE has invested in creating the infrastructural foundation for the CO:RE KB. One major building block was to develop an infrastructure for the partners in 35 European and associated countries to collect, code and annotate the research and evidence they identified as most relevant for their countries to create the CO:RE Evidence Base (EB) and Data Directory (DD).
The novelty of the CO:RE EB and DD is that it goes beyond plain and cursory forms of library catalogues in at least four ways:
First, CO:RE collaborates with 27 partner countries, who contribute to the knowledge base by identifying and recording relevant research published in their respective countries. Together with the countries covered by the consortium members themselves, the CO:RE EB collates research and evidence from 35 pan-European countries. This allows the project to record relevant evidence in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner by individuals who are familiar with their country’s media systems, local, political and cultural circumstances and national language(s).
Second, the CO:RE EB goes beyond the provision of bibliographic data and information. The national teams provide annotations to their entries, describing, for instance, the goal and results of a recorded study, implications for policymakers and educators reported in a recorded publication or the basic parameters of producing the published evidence. This allows easy and need-based access for different stakeholder groups..
Third, Europe is rich in different languages and cultures. To overcome language barriers, the 35 national contributors to the evidence base were asked to provide all annotations, summaries and descriptions of relevant publications and studies in English.
Last, the CO:RE DD collates all studies published between 2014 and 2020 that publicly offer their data for re-analysis. It is based on the study entries made by the national teams and lists all studies that were marked as publicly offering data for reuse. This mark was set if a study indicated data available on request or deposited raw data in a scientific data archive.
Furthermore, CO:RE aims at providing resources, materials, guidance and recommendations to its stakeholders in research, education and policymaking. The consortium has laid the groundwork for this by inviting all stakeholders to engage in the development process of the CO:RE KB to deliver truly need-based resources. The short report series on key topics, the policy brief series, and the Theories, Methods and Education Toolkits as well as the Compass for Research Ethics have been completed and implemented in the second half of the project duration.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The CO:RE KB aims to have a substantial impact for researchers, policymakers, educational stakeholders and society at large, by drawing together European research and evidence in an easy to use online resource for stakeholders to apply to their relevant contexts. In the first reporting period, the consortium achieved impact in the five identified areas below:
Knowledge transfer: The consortium conducted the required groundwork to build the CO:RE EB and DD. The contribution period to collect and code the available research and evidence of their respective countries ended on 30 September 2021. The database encompasses over 1,700 annotated publication entries and more than 1,300 annotated study entries, all published since 2014 in Europe. This effort is unparalleled and helps overcome language barriers that exist for evidence on smaller countries given the linguistic diversity in Europe.
Enhancing research engagement: During the first reporting period, the consortium hosted a total of nine webinars and six associated discussion forums, released multiple blog series, a vlog series, and two short reports tailored to the research community. With these activities, the consortium reached 125,000+ people as direct participants, ex-post viewers or via social media channels. Given that the CO:RE KB is to be made publicly available in the second reporting period, the consortium regards the reach already as a great success.
Facilitating research: The consortium teams have built the foundation for facilitating research on the topic of children and young people online in Europe. Not only has the first period successfully implemented regular stakeholder events that foster dialogue between researchers, educators, policymakers and families to provide better-suited evidence for better future policy, but also has prepared all necessary steps for the publishing of the EU Kids Online (2018-19) data sets for reuse, which shall be intensively promoted via the CO:RE KB. This unrivalled collective effort fosters new research engagements as it allows researchers to identify hot topics and blind spots across all disciplines concerned with the subject matter, points to trends in policy and education and promotes mutual understanding amongst stakeholders.
Impact on policy: The consortium has hosted a range of synchronous and asynchronous policy and education stakeholder events and fostered intensive dialogue between all stakeholders. It has successfully implemented policy and educational stakeholder event series and a policy brief series, reporting on distilled research findings and clear links to policy implications for policy and education stakeholders on the one hand and on key policy issues of relevance to European audiences on the other, drawing on relevant regional, national and international contexts for the research community to respond to societal needs and challenges.
Sustainability: In the first half of the project, the consortium has set the foundation for the CO:RE KB to be made publicly available at the turn of the year. After the launch, all stakeholders are invited to flag relevant research and evidence to be included in the CO:RE EB. This allows the project to remain up-to-date on the European research landscape.
In terms of a sustainable continuation of the CO:RE KB, the consortium has already begun assessments for further funding opportunities after the first reporting period. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) leads these efforts and will function as coordinator for further funding periods.

CO:RE Project Phases

CO:RE Work Packages Structure