Children in the family:
the Internet usage
Ana Nunes de Almeida (ICS-UL)
Nuno de Almeida Alves (CIES-ISCTE)
Ana Delicado (ICS-UL)
Infância, crianças e internet: desafios na era digital
Fund. C. Gulbenkian, 23-24 Nov 09
Starting points…
Portugal entered late into modernity. A high speed
mode
But change is not just..
• a one dimension, a linear process
• a clear cut before-after. Past embodies the present.
• a deducible copy: from the centre to the periphery, from
the upper to the lower levels of society
a multidimensional present
Starting points…
1. Internet at home: an intense and recent adoption
2. Families with children: the leaders of domestic
technological innovation
• Educative mobilization, conjugal family schooling central in family strategies
• Children’s safety: the home as an attractive
media environment
The focus today…
• Family context and the child internet
usage
• Family as a (re)producer of digital divides
• Dimensions:
• the form
• the position in the social
structure (parents’ level of
education, social class)
The research project
• Portuguese children’s practices,
appropriations, representations about the
internet
• 1st stage: survey of school children, MayJune 2008; public and private schools; 4th,
6th and 9th grades (8-17 years old); N=3039
2nd stage: interviews with children (150),
parents (50) and teachers (50)
RESULTS
1. Morphology
The type of household
Co-residing siblings
RESULTS
2. Family social position
Level of education
Social class
Final remarks
1. Technology essentialist views vs. “context
matters”
2. Family forms and social position
introduce and explain diversity –
children and generations
3. Internet at home: technological families
vs. generational gap