Ofcom: UK children's media literacy

Ofcom done a report last year on UK children's media literacy, in the website they explain what have changed now..

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/media-literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/ukchildrensml11/

What is media literacy?

Media literacy is a range of competences that enable people to analyse, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms. In other words, a person has a high level of media literacy if he or she has the skills, knowledge and understanding to make full use of the opportunities available through different media. Media literacy also helps people to manage content and communications, and to protect themselves and their families from the potential risks associated with using these services.

Here are some important figures (excerpt from executive summary):

• TV remains the preferred medium for 5-7s (52%), and 8-11s (45%), although there has been an increase among 8-11s saying they would most-miss the Internet (15% in 2010 v. 10% in 2009). Children aged 12-15 are now as likely to miss the Internet (24%) and mobiles (26%) as they are to miss TV (24%).

Gaming

• Most children use any type of gaming device, accounting for eight in ten 5-7s (82%), nine in ten 8-11s (94%) and nine in ten 12-15s (91%). 12% of 12-15s who ever play games say they mostly play with other people over the Internet, and this rises to 19% for boys in this age group who ever play games.
• Internet
  • Hours spent online at home vary by the age of the child. Children aged 5-7 use the Internet for an estimated 5.2 hours in a typical week, compared to 8.4 hours for 8-11s and 15.6 hours for 12-15s. This compares with an estimated 14.8 hours watching TV per week for 5-7s, 16.4 hours per week for 8-11s, and 17.2 hours per week for 12-15s.
  • There is a clear hierarchy of the types of information children aged 12-15 would be happy to put online. The majority of 12-15s would be happy to post photos from being out with their friends (58%) or from their holiday (54%), while around half would be happy to post information about what they are doing (51%) or how they are feeling (46%). Children would be much less willing to give out their contact details such as their email address (22%), their mobile phone number (8%) or their home address details (6%)
• Social networking
• Social networking activity continues to increase, especially for younger age-groups. There has been an increase in 5-7s use of social networking weekly use; from 7% in 2009 to 23% in 2010, although this relates to them visiting virtual worlds like Club Penguin or Moshi Monsters rather than mainstream social networking sites. When parents were asked specifically whether or not their online 5-7 year old had an active social networking profile, 5% said they had. One third (34%) of 8-12s have a profile on sites that require users to register as being 13 or over, up from 25% in 2009.  Looking specifically at 10-12 year old internet users, 47% have such a profile, a rise from 35% in 2009.
• 85% of 8-11s and 87% of 12-15s with a social networking profile say that it can only be seen by friends. However, in terms of who they communicate with via their profile, 22% of 8-11s and nearly one third (32%) of 12-15s say they either speak to friends of friends or people they don’t know, in other words that they are potentially in contact with people not directly known to them.