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Protecting persons under 18 online: what are the risks? What protection is there?
Translations are provided as a service to Arcom users and are supplied “as is”, throught the DeepL tool. Consequently, only the text of the original version is authentic.
In order to understand the uses and practices of youngsters on digital platforms, the nature and extent of the risks to which they are exposed, and the ways in which they deal with them, Arcom has carried out an unprecedented study on the subject.
The study is based on a four-part methodological approach:
- Preparatory hearings: meetings and exchanges with representatives of 8 platforms (YouTube, Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, X, Bereal, Dailymotion, Twitch), as well as with 4 experts on adolescence and the digital world;
- Qualitative study: interviews with 28 persons under 18;
- Quantitative study: survey (via questionnaire) of 2,000 person-under-18s representative of this age segment within the French population and their parents;
- Semiological analysis: analysis of the language, images and symbols used by digital platforms in the functionalities and terms of service made available to users, and of the results obtained from problematic and non-problematic queries.
Arcom has made available a summary of the study (in French and English), as well as the three full reports on the various aspects of the study. Quantitative data are available on data.gouv.fr
Study summary
Study summary: Protection of persons under 18 online
- 2.76 MB
- in english
Protection of persons under 18 online: qualitative study
Key points
- Online platforms play a central role in the daily activities of the person under 18s we met.
- Risk mapping shows that not all person under 18s are equally equipped to deal with risks, nor do they all have the same perception of risk.
- Person under 18s are also not all equal when it comes to protection strategies .
- the majority of the persons under 18 we met expect platforms to be more involved in strengthening awareness raising from an early age
Qualitative study report
- 2.74 MB
- in french
Protection of persons under 18 online: quantitative study
44%
... started using at least one social network before the age of 13.
62%
... claim to have lied about their age when registering on a platform, with less than one in five teenagers concerned by a verification.
53%
.... of youngsters want more protection and support. 45% feel that platforms offer insufficient protection.
Quantitative study report
- 4.06 MB
- in french
Protection of persons under 18 online: a semiological study
- The registration process is easy, within the reach of teenagers
- Terms of service (TOS) are not easily visible or simplified on most platforms .
- Violent content and pornography are sometimes offered unsolicited.
- Although some proactive risk-prevention measures have been noted as a sign of goodwill on the part of the platforms, they are often not very visible in the paths taken.
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Semiological study report
- 3.84 MB
- in french
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