This part of the report presents the survey responses from children and young people aged 9 to 15 years. The survey was conducted in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, Finland chose to not participate in this part.
Given the young population in this survey, a few things are important to consider:
Considering the age of the respondents, it can be assumed that many of the youngest have received help from an adult when answering the survey. This may have affected their responses.
Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to have an account on social media and therefore may lack direct experience. However, the age limit does not necessarily mean that they do not have an account or experience, or that they don’t have opinions on social media.
When assessing aspects of media literacy in a survey, some topics or questions may be abstract or complex for young respondents. Many have not yet learned about, nor have they formed an opinion regarding topics such as the role of the media in a democratic society. An observable effect from this is that in some cases there are large shares of respondents answering "don't know" to questions or statements, compared to the adult survey. This is especially evident in the youngest age group in the survey, 9- to 12-year-olds.
Within the framework of this project, as many aspects of media literacy as possible have been embraced. Similar questions were included in both the adult and the youth survey. However, given the large shares of ‘don’t know’-replies, some of the proficiencies included in the concept media literacy may be too demanding for a young person. Thus, this could also be seen as a result of the project; assessing aspects of media literacy with young people may require further review and adaption of the questionnaire. What could also be discussed is whether a survey aimed at children and young people requires a different method for assessment than a online survey.