Romania

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In brief

In 2010, Romanian children were still lagging behind most of their European peers in terms of breadth of access and range of activities (e.g. participation in social networking sites). More recent data show them as being some of the fastest to catch up, notably through the use of mobile devices. Digital literacy among children was rather low in 2010, as well their awareness of privacy issues surrounding the use of social networking sites. In terms of risks, Romanian children seem to experience more bullying than other children. In 2010, Romanian parents seemed to be less aware about their children’s problems online and less involved in managing their online experiences, a situation that was mostly attributable to their lack of digital competencies (Romanian parents reported lower levels of internet use than their children). Although in a privileged position to reach many children, teachers were still reluctant to use ICTs in school settings.

Highlights

For academia, the project has acted as the first benchmark of robust data on children’s internet use in Romania (it has been used for Bachelor's, Master's and PhD theses, and prior to the Net Children Go Mobile project it has been the only reliable data on children’s internet use and online safety).
NGOs used the data to show the necessity of policies around online safety and digital literacy (e.g. the Romanian Insafe node Sigur.info has replicated the survey for the Romanian urban population).
There is still a need to address the gaps in digital skills and awareness of privacy issues (as reflected by the 2013 qualitative data) among children and to promote digital literacy and awareness among adults (teachers and parents).

For further information, see national facts, findings and more on the right of this page.

Romanian team

Anca Velicu, PhD in Sociology (Children's Relationship with Television and NICT, University of Bucharest), is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy. She has also been involved in the Net Children Go Mobile project (2012-2014). Her main interests include sociology of media, violence on TV, the use of ICTs in schools, media literacy, digital literacy and parental mediation

Monica Barbovschi, PhD, is an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Families at Masaryk University in Brno (CZ). She is also a member of the Romanian team in the Net Children Go Mobile project (2012-2014). Within the scope of the two projects, she has taken an interest in aspects related to online risks for children, digital skills and divides, policy measures, methodological and ethical issues related to conducting qualitative research wth children.

Bianca Balea received her PhD from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania in 2014. Her PhD thesis deals with digital divides among adolescents in Romania. Her current research interests are about new media and society, online identities and children's use of new digital technologies.

Eva Laszlo is a doctoral student in Cociology and teaching assistant at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Department of Social Work, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. Her research is focused on domestic violence, sexual abuse and trafficking of women.

Gyöngyvér Tőkés, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Sapientia University, Târgu Mureş. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in media and society, and methods of researching mass communication. Her research interest is in new media, especially in internet use and the digital divide of youth in Romania.

Ecaterina Balica is senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy, and coordinator of the Laboratory ‘Violence and Crime. Prevention and Mediation’. She was member of national and international projects focused on violence in schools, restorative justice, homicide-suicides and femicide.