Blog – Latest stories tagged 'internet'

New report predicts future technology trends among children and young people

The dominance of watching a television set as a childhood pastime is likely to end within the next two years - with youngsters likely to be spending more time online for the first time ever, according to the new CHILDWISE ‘Connected Kids’ report.

Future generations of children are also more likely to watch content, such as TV programmes, on a tablet, or even a phablet (a tablet-style mobile phone) than they are a traditional television set, laptop or PC.

Soon children will expect to stay connected at all times – everywhere and anywhere. This is likely to influence how willing they are to participate in trips out and family holidays.

CHILDWISE’s ‘Connected Kids’ analyses 20 years of annual survey data from children and young people across the UK. It shows the progression of technologies, ownership and usage, and predicts how they might change into the future.

“This is the first time we have analysed data from the last 20 years of the annual CHILDWISE Monitor surveys to predict the progression of technologies and their usage,” says CHILDWISE researcher Matthew Nevard.

“This groundbreaking report uses the wealth of historic data we have on children’s media usage to identify trends and theorise how children’s media engagement is likely to develop over the next few year,” adds Matthew.

CHILDWISE Trendlines future predictions

Tablet ownership will continue to increase, with the potential to reach similar levels to mobile ownership in the next few years.

Ownership of laptops and PCs is likely to fall.

Screen time will level out. As time spent using the internet and mobiles increases gradually, time spent watching television on a traditional set is declining. More on demand and binge viewing on tablets and laptops.

Decline in the proportion of children with TV sets in their bedroom, from around 80% of 7-16s in 2004 to 60% in 2014. Children and young people can now watch content in their own room on other devices, such as laptops and tablets. This trend is set to continue over the next few years.

Children will expect to be able to access the internet anywhere and everywhere - ability to access their online lives may even influence their willingness to participate in family holidays and trips out.

The use of portable devices makes it more difficult for parents to regulate what their children are accessing on the internet. Therefore, protecting children from inappropriate content online is set to be a continuing issue going forward.

For the first time children could spend more hours online than watching television. The wealth of content available online and popularity of YouTube is drawing young people to the internet over linear TV viewing.

Traditional social networks to decline steadily in popularity with photo and video sharing sites increasingly coming out as favourites among young people.

Mobiles to become a ‘hub’ device, used to coordinate a variety of other technological devices. It is likely that children and young people will use their mobiles to interact with the television, either indirectly through second-screen viewing or as a controller.

Apps such as YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat to continue to be popular. Facebook is still widely used but its popularity is declining in favour of newer experiences.

In the next two years

Children’s internet use is likely to overshadow the television. TV viewing on traditional sets continues to decline at a steady rate, whilst hours spent online will increase. Children expect to choose the content they engage with and on-demand services like Netflix will be the norm.

In the next five years

Likely convergence of technology currently in use. Some children may choose ‘phablets’ (tablet-like phones) instead of the current popular combination of phone and tablet/laptop. Televisions likely to be increasingly internet-connected, allowing streaming of content from portable devices to the big screen. Cloud technology means children will expect to access their files and information anywhere and on any device.

In the next 10 years

Children growing up will have little understanding of a world without the internet. Having appliances which cannot be controlled using a smartphone or some kind of online dashboard may be seen as outdated, or at least increasingly rare. Wearable technology likely to have progressed significantly by this point.

The CHILDWISE Monitor survey is a comprehensive annual research study with children and young people across the UK. The study looks at children’s media consumption and purchasing behaviour, and at aspects of their wider life.

E-safety charity, Childnet, announce winners of the Childnet Film Competition 2015 in association with PhonepayPlus - Winning films to be used as Internet safety resources for schools

UK children’s charity, Childnet International, announced the winners of their sixth annual film competition at a private screening held at the BFI Southbank earlier this week.

Judged by a panel of experts from the BBFC, BFI, PhonepayPlus and beauty vlogger, Lily Pebbles, the three winning schools and the six other finalists will now see their films used as Internet safety resources to educate other young people about how to use the Internet safely.

Children and Families Minister, Edward Timpson, said:

"The Internet is a tremendously powerful tool that is changing the way our children learn and stay in touch but we cannot afford to be complacent about the risks - the dangers of the virtual world are no less pressing than those in the real world.”

“And it’s through initiatives like the Childnet Film Competition that we can make sure children really harness all the opportunities that the Internet provides while at the same time giving them the information and tools they need to protect themselves online. Well done to all of those who have taken part.”

As Childnet Education Projects Officer, Becky Nancarrow, said:

“This year’s film competition has been truly inspiring! Today we were able to celebrate the achievements of the 9 finalists who have met the challenge set by the competition amazingly well, addressing many of the key issues young people face online in a fun, creative and positive way. But it doesn’t end there! Now the young people’s films will have an even wider impact, as the films become resources for schools and youth groups to use to educate young people about staying safe online”.

Founded in 2010 as a way of asking young people to focus on positive use of the Internet, the Childnet Film Competition invites schools and youth organisations from across the UK to capture their Internet safety messages in a short film. For 2015, secondary schools were given the opportunity to illustrate another part of their digital lives, as UK regulator PhonepayPlus teamed up with Childnet to introduce the PhoneBrain category.

With over 130 entries across the three categories, primary, secondary and PhoneBrain, 8 schools and 1 youth group attended the shortlisted event where there films were shown on the big screen.

Taking home the top prize of film equipment for their school was Ludworth Primary School winning the primary school entry with ‘Chips and Bangs’. Weavers Academy took home the top prize for their entry ‘We have a choice to make a better Internet’ in the secondary category and the PhoneBrain Category was won by Willow Bank School for their film ‘Mummy I wuv you’.

Martin Stamper from Ludworth Primary School said:

“As a school we loved the opportunity to give our children an outlet for their creativity which could possibly be seen on a nationwide level. We had no idea it would lead to the day we have just had. Thanks!”

Creator of the secondary school winning film from Weavers Academy, Keith, said:

“When I heard about the film competition, I saw it as an opportunity to do what I love. It was special to me because as someone who isn’t really keen on sports and a lot of after/outside of school activities it felt really good to be part of something big! Also, the fact that I’ve actually won 1st place makes every second I put into the making of the animation worth it.”

Steve Pepper from Willow Bank School said:

“The film competition was a great opportunity to get across an important message! Nobody realises how much more is being taken from the young and vulnerable – it’s great to get the word out.”

The winning films from the Childnet Film Competition can be viewed here

How the Internet and social media can turn fads and crazes into global phenomena

When I was growing up, I remember countless fads and trends that came and went, either in the confines of school or within my group of friends at home. We could be trying to learn the latest cool trick with our ‘YoYos’, arming ourselves with plastic lemons full of water (our teachers hated that one!), skateboarding, scrambling on bicycles not built for the rough stuff and many more harmless activities that occupied us for a couple of months until the next big ‘thing’ came along.

It’s fair to say, and I think you’ll agree, that there was nothing particularly dangerous or sinister about our childhood fads (apart from those, maybe, that experimented with smoking or alcohol); however, in these days of social media, the historically innocent world of fads and crazes appears to have found a much darker and frankly disturbing format that worryingly some children appear to be compelled to follow.

In recent years, one of the most high profile online crazes was the furore surrounding the Internet meme ‘Slenderman’ - a fictional supernatural character that was created on a horror Internet forum as part of a competition whereby users were asked to edit existing, everyday photographs to make them appear paranormal. The original poster submitted two black and white images of a group of children and added an abnormally tall and thin, phantom-like figure, in a black suit with no distinguishable facial features - this became known as the ‘Slenderman’. The whole phenomenon went viral on various social media, with a whole wealth of new photographs and stories appearing daily and it wasn’t long before claims were being made that the character was, in fact, real. In May 2014, however, two girls in Wisconsin took the phenomenon to a whole different, macabre level. When they allegedly took a twelve year old classmate to woods near their home and stabbed her 19 times, saying to the authorities later that they had attempted to commit a murder in order to become ‘proxies’ of the ‘Slenderman’ - their victim survived.

The online craze that is the ‘Slenderman’ was also cited as an influence on young people aged 12 to 24 on the ‘Pine Ridge Indian Reservation’ where an epidemic of suicide attempts occurred.

Another craze started out as a drinking game in Australia. The original idea of the game, which was given the title of ‘Neknominate’ or ‘Neck and Nominate’ was to ‘neck’ an alcoholic drink (usually a pint of beer) and then nominate others to do the same. When comments, images and videos of ‘Neknominate’ participants started to appear on social media platforms it again went quickly viral. The problems with these crazes comes when the competitive spirit of some the potential participants takes hold and they consequently raise the level of the challenges. In the case of ‘Neknominate’, it is alleged that five people died as a consequence of the challenges - one participant fatally downed a pint of vodka, whilst another died after reportedly mixing an entire bottle of wine, a quarter bottle of whiskey and a can of lager and ‘necking’ the lot!

Thankfully, some good did come out of this irresponsible craze when a group of South Africans decided to turn it on its head and challenged others to carry out random acts of kindness for others - these also spread virally and picked up such titles as ‘Feed the Deed’ in Canada and ‘SmartNominate’ in France, which encouraged people taking part to give food to the homeless or donate blood.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the spread of crazy and down right dangerous pursuits over social media show no signs of letting up. Earlier this year (May 2015), the Mail Online reported on a new, and in my opinion staggeringly stupid, craze called the ‘Fire Challenge’, where young people film themselves pouring an inflammable liquid over their bodies and setting themselves alight. There have already been cases where stunts have gone wrong and the participant has been left badly burned and a 15 year old in the USA burned to death when his entire body was engulfed in flames.

These days, social media provides a vehicle for fads and trends to spread virally throughout the global community like nothing else previously - even television cannot claim to have contributed to the proliferation of historical trends anywhere close to what the Internet can. The ubiquitous nature of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms that can be accessed via desktop and mobile devices means that any potential phenomena can reach huge audience very quickly. In 2014, a positive example of how a craze can go viral occurred in the US, by way of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, where a person dumps, or has dumped on by friends, a bucket of ice water over their heads to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and encourage donations to charities involved in research of the disease. In the UK, people took part in order to support the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

It is often a great experience when you feel part of a movement or phenomena, you can say to friends “yeah, I did that too!” You feel part of an exclusive club or community and if the common activity is a force for good like helping a charity or showing kindness then long may it continue, but when it comes fads or crazes that demand risky pursuits, I am reminded what my parents said whilst chastising me, as a child, when I had done something stupid following the lead of a so-called friend:

“If Joe Smith jumped off a cliff would you follow and jump off too?”

If you have come across good or bad social media trends, please share your expereince using the comments section below.