Elisabeth Staksrud

She didn’t feel completely comfortable with the job when the students thought they were Steven Spielberg’s with just a camera in their hands. So, after six months in this job, she quit and became a media scientist.

Elisabeth is Project Coordinator of EU awareness projects SAFT, and for

the moment she works on SAFT- Safety Awareness Facts Tools.

With SAFT she’s interviewed 4700 children and 3200 parents in Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. With these interviews they’ve found out that children now are averagely 5-6 years old the first time they use the internet! She also told us that there are more 12-year olds on the net than 17-year olds!

Other interesting facts are that 91% of European students use the internet, that only 40% of the parents in the test actually have rules for using the internet and that the main place to use the computer is in your own home.

But what do children really do online?

Throughout the interviews, Elisabeth found out that parents actually worry the most about their children watching and downloading porn. This is definitely not what children are most likely to do on the Internet. Boys are usually on the net to play games and have fun, whilst the girls use it for communicating with other people.

Computer games are also an interesting topic she brought up, and through the interviews she had found out something I think she (and the rest of us) already knew.

Boys have always been a little into sports, action and a thrill. They also enjoy playing with friends.

Girls on the other hand like virtual realities where they get to be god. A girl likes to play alone, because it would be hard with another god poking you on the shoulder telling you what to do.  But that’s just women, or what?

Parents see the computer as a screen, while children se it as reality and simply, life.