The impact of the Internet on children in Luxembourg
The Luxembourg National Youth Service made a report for Safe Internet Day on February 7. It reviewed key statistics for Luxembourg, in particular the interaction of children and young people with digital ways of transmitting the information.
It turned out that the first contact with gadgets happens quite early, before the age of 4. 40% of children watch videos and photos or participate in video calls with their parents in one way or another. By the age of 9, this proportion reaches 83%.
Kids get their first smartphone at the age of 12. At this age, 84% of children already have a gadget of their own. Usually, this happens because parents want to be in touch with their children, especially when kids start going to school on their own.
WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Instagram remain the most popular apps for minors between the ages of 8 and 18. TikTok has been gaining traction in recent years as well.
Cyberbullying, misinformation, and personal data mining continue to be the main online threats. Most parents, however, are confident that their children have a fairly good knowledge of cybersecurity. Children themselves rate their abilities to filter content fairly well. Only about 10% of respondents admitted that their knowledge of online security is far from perfect.
