Czech Republic

David Smahel, PhD. is Associate Professor at the Institute of Children, Youth and Family Research, Masaryk University. He directs the “Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society” (http://irtis.fss.muni.cz). Current research focuses on adolescents’ and adults’ internet use, the online problematic experiences of children and adolescents, the construction of online identities and virtual relationships, and online addictive behaviour. He is editor of Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace and has co-authored a book, Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development (Springer, 2011).

Lukas Blinka (PhD in Media & Communication) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family, Masaryk University. His present research interests are related to the effects of new digital media use and overuse on well-being, including children's excessive internet use, excessive online gaming and gaming addiction, and other forms of internet addictions.

Anna Ševčíková, PhD. is a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Her research interest includes sexuality on the internet, psychosexual development, and online risks among children and adolescents.

Alena Černá is a PhD student of Psychology in the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Her main area of interest is  cyberbullying and online harassment. She also focuses on online youth communities.

Hana Macháèková is a PhD student of Psychology in the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Her major interests are the role of new media in the lives of children, cyberbullying, the blogging phenomenon and online communities.

Věra Kontríková is a PhD student of Psychology in the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Her main research interests centre around online risks. She focuses especially on online risk perception and meaning. She is also interested in online gaming (mainly MMORPG) and online communities.. 

Lenka Dědková is a PhD student of Social Psychology in the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, where she also works for the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family. Her research interests include cyberbullying and meeting online strangers, with a focus on children and adolescents, but she is also interested in online security behaviour and social networking sites.

Michelle Wright is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Children, Youth, and Family Research. Her research interests include the contextual factors, such as familial and cultural, which influence children's and adolescents' aggression and victimisation as well as their pursuit, maintenance, and achievement of peer status.

Martina Cernikova, MA, is a junior researcher at the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family at Masaryk University and a PhD candidate in Social Psychology. Her main interest
is in qualitative data analyses. Her research topics are focused on the online risky behaviour of children and other problematic situations linked with the online world. She is also a trainee in systemic psychotherapy, training accredited by the Czech Ministry of Health.