Latvia

EU Kids Online

Please click to go to the Latvian language website

In brief

The Latvian study was conducted in 2013 so results are not directly comparable with the EU Kids survey, done in 2010. In Latvia, 78% of children use the internet everyday or almost everyday. They are also starting to make use of it by the age of 8, earlier than the previous recorded European average of 9. Furthermore, 88% of Latvian children have their own social network profile in use. This higher and more active use of the internet also entails a higher percentage of risk (18%) when compared to the EU average of 12%. These changes over the years are not necessarily unique to Latvia.

Highlights

The Latvian report details changes and differences from the European averages recorded in 2010 as well as its own results. It is in itself an encouraging document and the basis for further research to be undertaken at all levels.

Latvian team

Guna Spurava is a doctoral student at the Department of Communication studies at the University of Latvia and she is the chairman of the board for the analytic journal in Latvia „Ir". She has been in the research area for more than 14 years and her main research interests are linked with media and mass communication.

Līva Brice is a doctoral student at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Latvia, working as project research assistant on EU Kids Online III. Her research interests are digital communication and social media, especially social networking sites, where she is interested in self-presentation.

Links

There are three main organisations that pay attention to and inform children about risks on the internet:

Net-Safe Latvia Safer internet center - www.drossinternets.lv

The State police have a special web page devoted to children and teenagers about safety and prevention questions, including safety on the internet.

An informative page that was created as part of a project "Safety online" in cooperation with Microsoft commences with films about child safety on the internet. http://www.draudzigsinternets.lv

Contact

Guna Spurava
Department of Media and Communications
Faculty of Social science
University of Latvia
Lomonosova Street 1a
Riga, LV – 1019
Latvia
email: Guna.Spurava@fieldex.lv

Full report

Publications

Available studies