Do questions matter on children’s answers on risk and safety?

Ponte, C., Simões, J., Jorge, A. (2013). Do questions matter on children’s answers on risk and safety?. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 7(1).

Abstract: This article aims at understanding the construction of online risk and safety among children addressing the lack of research on children’s discourses on their internet experiences. The analysis compares the perceptions of Portuguese children (9-16) based on an open-ended question about online risk from the EU Kids Online survey and two open-ended questions about online safety from a survey of disadvantaged children. Theoretically, the article combines constructionist perspectives on risk with the framework and matrix used in EU Kids Online project. Methodological tools from cognitive sciences and from critical discourse analysis were used to explore children’s answers. These theories and methods contributed to capture children’s own discourses on online risk and safety, which are complex, often ambivalent and affected by hegemonic public discourses expressing media panics and fears. The analysis made visible how different wordings of questions may lead to different answers and to distinctive children’s positions, from apparently excluded of the risk situations to keen advisors of their peers on online safety.