British children spend almost two days a week staring at screens, the second highest of all countries surveyed in first-ever global Child Online Safety Index
British children spend almost two days a week staring at screens, the second highest of all countries surveyed in first-ever global Child Online Safety Index
International think-tank the DQ Institute launches the world’s first real-time Child Online Safety Index on Safer Internet Day 2020, after surveying 145,426 children and adolescents in 30 countries over the last three years.
The UK is ranked second from last for children’s disciplined digital use in the DQ Institute’s 30-country Child Online Safety Index (COSI) launched today. The ranking is based on excessive screen time, high social media and gaming use, and mobile phone ownership among children. Only the Dominican Republic ranked lower than the UK, while Japan is ranked first.
On average, 8-19 year olds in Britain are spending almost two days (44 hours) per week looking at screens including computers, mobile phones, and televisions – almost twice that of Japan where children spend just over 24 hours a week looking at screens.
Disciplined Digital Use is one of six measures including education and exposure to cyber risks such as cyberbullying that make up the COSI. Overall, the UK ranks 19th out of 30 countries surveyed for child online safety, lower than any other developed country surveyed. By contrast, Spain ranks first, followed by Australia. Thailand is ranked last.
Based on a survey of 145,426 children and adolescents in 30 countries over the last three years, the COSI is the world’s first real-time measure to help nations understand their children’s online safety status. The COSI was announced by the DQ Institute as part of the #DQEveryChild global movement in collaboration with over 100 organisations including Singtel, AIS, Optus, TURKCELL, Twitter, World Economic Forum, and JA Worldwide since 2017. It is linked with DQ assessment tools and its global database and will be automatically updated as countries progress with their child online safety and digital citizenship initiatives. This will help countries coordinate more effectively various efforts to enhance child online safety and digital citizenship, thus enabling the measurement of global progress on this front.
The survey also ranked the UK eighth from last in terms of Digital Competency – children’s ability to use technology safely and responsibly. It is far behind first ranked India, but above lowest ranked Thailand.
However, the UK comes second in terms of Social Infrastructure, taking account of government policies and ethical industry practices for child online protection, behind only the US. Nepal is ranked last on this measure.
The UK also scored highly on Connectivity, measuring children’s meaningful access to the internet, coming sixth. Singapore ranked highest and Nepal lowest.
Meanwhile, the COSI ranks the UK 17th for children’s exposure to cyber risks including cyberbullying, risky content and risky contact with strangers. Japan is ranked first and Thailand last.
Sixty-percent of British children aged 8-12 are exposed to at least one form of cyber risk including 47% who have experienced cyberbullying, and 24% who are at risk of gaming disorder. Meanwhile, 32% of 13-19 year olds have experienced unwelcome sexual contact.
The UK is also ranked 16th when it comes to Guidance and Education, assessing protective support and direction from parents and schools. Here, Egypt comes first and Indonesia last.
What is the World Economic Forum (WEF) doing to improve digital intelligence in children?
The latest figures show that 56% of 8-12-year-olds across 29 countries are involved in at least one of the world’s major cyber-risks:
Using WEF’s platform to accelerate its work globally, #DQEveryChild, an initiative to increase the digital intelligence quotient (DQ) of children aged 8-12, has reduced cyber-risk exposure by 15%. In March 2019, the DQ Global Standards Report 2019 was launched – the first attempt to define a global standard for digital literacy, skills and readiness across the education and technology sectors. WEF’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Media, Information and Entertainment has brought together key stakeholders to ensure better digital intelligence for children worldwide. |
Global findings
The report’s most damning finding is that almost two-thirds (60%) of online children aged 8-12 across the world’s surveyed countries are exposed to one or more forms of cyber risk, adding up to a ‘cyber pandemic’.
Constituting these risks:
- 45% of online children across the surveyed countries are affected by cyberbullying;
- 39% experience reputational risks;
- 29% are exposed to violent and sexual content;
- 28% experience cyber threats;
- 17% experience risky contact such as offline meetings with strangers or sexual contact;
- 13% are at risk for a gaming disorder;
- 7% are at risk for social media disorder.
In general, the COSI found that Western and East Asian countries tended to rank higher for child online safety, with South and Southeast Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern and African countries tending to rank lower.
East Asian countries tended to rank better than countries in other regions on Cyber Risks, Disciplined Digital Use, Digital Competency and Connectivity. Western countries tended to outperform countries in other regions on Social Infrastructure and Guidance and Education.
Dr Yuhyun Park, Founder of the DQ Institute, said:
“That the UK ranks lower than any other developed country surveyed in the Child Online Safety Index should serve as a wakeup call to everyone in British society about the safety of the nation’s children online.
“But no nation, no matter where they are ranked, has cause for complacency. What we are witnessing is a global cyber-pandemic with high exposure to multiple forms of online risks threatening children across all the countries we surveyed.
“Everyone in society has a role to play in turning this around. Businesses, from social media and telecommunications to hardware and gaming companies, should make child online safety a core business principle. Companies should also partner with schools to help tackle cyberbullying. And governments must back stronger digital education. Most importantly, parents must be aware that they can make changes and reduce online harm. Helping children discipline their digital use from an early age is a necessary starting point for mitigating cyber risks. Primary schools also must teach students digital citizenship as part of their standard curriculum.
“Through the index, the UK and other countries will be able to identify areas of improvement through global benchmarking and then better focus on deploying initiatives for their children’s online safety.”
Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation and the Global Teacher Prize, said:
“We’ve been supporting this important work ever since the #DQEveryChild global movement was launched at the Global Education & Skills Forum in 2017. The Child Online Safety Index that has emerged as a result is a vital piece of research and my fervent hope is that policy makers around the world will act upon its findings.”
Alderman Sir Peter Estlin, Chairman of FutureDotNow.uk, said:
“In an increasingly digitised world, child online safety is more important than ever and I applaud the work of the DQ Institute in raising awareness of this important aspect of our society. The Child Online Safety Index is a great example of this.”
The DQ Institute (DQI) is an international think-tank that is dedicated to setting global standards for digital intelligence and to ensuring the safety, empowerment, and well-being of individuals, organisations, and nations in the digital age. DQI seeks to promote and coordinate digital intelligence education worldwide by using the DQ framework as a set of global standards for digital literacy, skills, and readiness. As part of these efforts, DQI also serves as the founding secretariat of the Coalition for Digital Intelligence (CDI), whose members include the OECD, IEEE Standards Association, and DQI. DQI operates as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States and as a not-for-profit foundation in South Korea.
The Coalition for Digital Intelligence (CDI) is a cooperative network of organisations from around the world that aims to improve global digital intelligence by coordinating efforts across the educational and technology communities through multi-stakeholder collaborations. As part of CDI, the IEEE Standards Association, DQ Institute, and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are building a global framework for digital intelligence, which includes a common set of definitions, language, and an understanding of comprehensive digital literacy concepts and skills that can be adopted by nations worldwide.
Methodology: The data of the COSI was collected from 145,426 children and adolescents in Australia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, Uruguay, US, and Vietnam. The data was collected between 2017 and 2019 as part of the #DQEveryChild, a strategic global movement to empower children with comprehensive digital citizenship competencies from the start of their digital lives using online education and assessment programs of DQ World. The movement started in Singapore with the support of Singtel and has quickly expanded in collaboration with the World Economic Forum to include over 100 partners organizations.
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