Croatia

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EU Kids Online

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In brief

Croatia is still catching up with other European countries in terms of internet use. In 2010 internet penetration was 50% and in 2014 it increased to 65%. The internet is present throughout the educational system, but mostly sporadically and very unevenly distributed among different regions. Large discrepancies in internet penetration across different regions imply there are significant differences in internet usage among children and young people. To a great extent modes of use, coping strategies and parental control depend on family socio-economic status.

Highlights

Croatia is not yet an official member of the Safer Internet Network, but there are some activities performed in that respect through the Centar za sigurniji internet (Centre for Safer Internet). Croatian members of the EU Kids Online network have established cooperation with this centre.
Dunja Potočnik and Dejan Vinković took part in two workshops on the Community Building and Support section of the Inspiring Science Education Project, which brings information and communication technologies closer to the educational activities.
During the second phase of the EU Kids Online Project (2010-2014) members of the Croatian network took part in two national surveys of children and youth and the internet:
- The impact of introducing new technologies in primary schools in Croatia, in 2014 (available online soon)
- Usage of Facebook by children (age 11-18), in 2013.
They also took part in one qualitative study of primary and secondary school students in three Croatian towns looking at online activities, risks and mediation (full results are due in late 2014).
Moreover, two research projects with modules on youth and new technologies were conducted:
- Youth in a Time of Crisis, in 2012
- Croatian students in the European context: the coming social elite, in 2010 (available only in Croatian).

Croatian team

Igor Kanižaj, PhD is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Journalism Department, University of Zagreb. His research areas are: media and children, media and violence, print media, media and diversity. He is vice president of the Association for Communication and Media Culture (dkmk.hr) that runs the project djecamedija.org. Igor is one of the authors of the first public opinion research on Media Literacy in Croatia and executive editor of the scientific journal Medijske studije/Media studies.

Dunja Potočnik, PhD, is a sociologist at the Institute for Social Research. She works on youth and new technologies, youth unemployment, social structure, intergenerational mobility, youth policy and science and higher education policy. Dunja has written one book, 18 scientific and many expert papers.

Ivana Ćosić Pregrad is a psychologist, working at the Child Protection Centre of Zagreb. She is a programme coordinator at the counselling centre for children and parents. Ivana is working on the UNICEF project on child electronic abuse. She is an author of several scientific and expert papers.

Marija Lugarić is a member of the Croatian Parliament. Her main fields of activities include education policy and youth policy. By profession, Marija Lugariæ is a primary school teacher.

Dejan Vinković holds a PhD in Astrophysics. He teaches at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Split, Croatia and manages the Science and Society Synergy Institute in Čakovec, Croatia. He has written many scientific and expert papers. His main field of expertise, besides astrophysics, includes computational sciences. He also works on science and educational policy.

Lana Ciboci is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Since 2014 she has been working at the Edward Bernays College for Communication Management. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Communication and Media Culture within which the project "Children of the media" was implemented. Lana is one of the authors of the first public opinion study on Media Literacy in Croatia.