Authors

• Finnish Society on Media Education

Keywords

children, digital games, internet, internet use, mass media exposure, mass media use, media literacy, mobile communication, news, reading (activity), television

Abstract

The barometer was collected as part of a research project funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland and it aimed to investigate children's media use and their relationship with the media in the year 2010. The data were collected from families that had children aged 0-8, and the parents of the children responded to the survey. In the survey, media include television, the Internet, digital games, mobile phone, the radio and music, and print media.

The respondents were asked how well they knew the media contents their children used, how important they regarded different things when selecting content for their children, and which media devices their children had access to at home. The respondents were asked whether their children used different media (television and films, the Internet, digital games, mobile phone, radio and music, and print media), in which format / on which device and how often, and what kind of content they accessed using each medium. For digital media, additional questions charted whether there were rules in place regarding the use of each medium in the family, and who accompanied the children when they used the media. Opinions were charted on age restrictions/ratings and child protection from harmful content on TV, films, the Internet and digital games. Finally, the respondents were asked how often they had noticed effects or changes in their children caused by the use of media (e.g. the child wanted to have a product seen in the media, the child acted restlessly or aggressively after media use, the child learned foreign language through media).

Background variables included the respondent's role (mother/stepmother, father/stepfather, other guardian), age, education, region, and type of neighbourhood of residence as well as the number of guardians in the household, and ages and genders of children. In addition, there were background variables charting information on the child on whose behalf the parent responded, which included the child's year of birth, gender, special characteristics that affect media use (e.g. disability), whether the child had a room of his/her own, and the child's reading and writing level.