Boom Digital? Children (3-8 years) and Screens

ERC’s Statutes establish the Regulatory Council’s competence “to carry out studies and other research and dissemination initiatives in the areas of media and content to promote the free exercise of the freedom of speech and of the press and the critical use of the media”. Within this context, since 2014 the ERC has promoted the “Public and Media Consumption” project, with each edition focusing on a topic: digital media in 2014; and audio-visual consumption in 2015.

The third edition of this project, which is a partnership between the ERC and Universidade Nova de Lisboa School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH), is the first study of its kind in Portugal (and in most of Europe) on the use of electronic media by children between the ages of three and eight. The choice of this topic is in line with the objective of regulating the media to “protect the most sensitive audiences, such as minors, in relation to content and services that are liable to prejudice their development”. With fieldwork carried out in 2016, the study sought to promote awareness of how young children grow when in contact with the digital technology surrounding them, the use they make of screens, the literary skills and competences they acquire, the harmful situations they may experience and the way in which families intervene in this digital socialisation. This web of engagement combines expectations, concerns and social pressures.