This chapter emphasises the importance of examining children's engagement in the digital world within a broader framework that considers child well-being and its drivers globally – as proposed by the OECD Child Well-being Measurement Framework. Such a framework can help understanding the relationships between children's offline lives, their vulnerabilities or the protective factors in their environment, and their online activities and outcomes. The chapter also introduce the data sources available to document children’s experiences with the digital environment cross-nationally.
How's Life for Children in the Digital Age?
Abstract
Children are individuals typically defined as being in the developmental stages of life from birth to the onset of adulthood. Legally, most countries consider children to be individuals under the age of 18, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Developmentally, children go through distinct stages – infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence – characterised by physical growth, cognitive development, emotional maturation, and social learning. Their needs, capacities, and responsibilities evolve as they grow, often requiring tailored care, education, and protection to ensure their well-being and healthy development.
Child well-being is a multi-dimensional and forward-looking concept that encompasses various aspects of children's lives (OECD, 2021[1]). It aims to ensure children enjoy a positive childhood while developing the skills needed for a successful future. This concept emphasises age-specific needs, the importance of fostering independence, and active participation in decisions that affect well-being, particularly during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Children's well-being is deeply influenced by their environment, including family, school, community, and broader policy contexts, especially in early childhood when they are heavily reliant on parents or caregivers. Pedagogically, the OECD Child Well-being Measurement Framework identifies key well-being outcomes categorised into four interconnected areas, including:
Material Outcomes: Access to essential resources like food, clothing, housing, and modern necessities such as computers and the Internet.
Physical Health Outcomes: Health status and physical development, including freedom from illness, injury, and disease.
Social, Emotional, and Cultural Outcomes: Behaviours, emotions, social relationships, mental health, identity (e.g., cultural, gender, and sexual identities), and life satisfaction.
Cognitive Development and Education Outcomes: Learning, cognitive skills, educational attainment, and satisfaction with educational experiences.
The increasing significance of the digital environment and related activities in children's lives highlights the need to understand their connection to children's well-being. In response, the concept of “child digital well-being” has emerged, though it currently lacks a universally agreed-upon definition (Cao and Li, 2023[2]). It can be conceptualised in two main ways. Firstly, in a narrower sense, it pertains to the psychological or emotional well-being of children during their digital engagements. This definition specifically addresses the online aspect of children's well-being, underscoring the enjoyment they derive from their online activities, or simply put, how digital technology influences children's emotional state. For example, in 2018, about 88% of children living in OECD countries (strongly) agreed that they like using digital devices.
A broader approach to child digital well-being encompasses the effects of digital technology on children's physical health, socio-emotional well-being, mental health, education, and learning. This perspective acknowledges that children's online experiences can have multifaceted effects on their well-being online and offline,1 extending beyond mere satisfaction or emotional responses to digital tools and the time spent on online activities. In essence, this approach highlights the significant interplay between online activities and outcomes, and the resources, emotions, and experiences from the offline world. Children’s engagement in the digital world can influence their overall well-being, impacting their learning, emotions, interactions with others, and life satisfaction. Conversely, the activities and emotional responses children experience online are shaped by their offline experiences, which can either strengthen their ability to navigate the digital environment or create vulnerabilities. Children facing distress in the offline world may be more likely to engage in problematic digital media use, leading to negative outcomes – see Chapter 4 for a review of evidence. This viewpoint aligns with the OECD Child Well-being Measurement Framework, which is designed to illustrate both child well-being and its contributing factors (OECD, 2021[1]). It is also consistent with the analysis of how the digital environment more broadly impacts individuals’ lives (OECD, 2019[3]; 2020[4]; Hatem and Ker, 2021[5]).
The way children engage with the digital world – i.e., their motivation to explore it, the digital tools and content they have access to, how they learn to navigate the digital world on their own or with others, etc. depends largely on the type and design of the digital services and devices available to them, as well as the protections in place against the risks of harmful contacts and conducts (see Chapter 3). It also depends on the interplay between the digital world and other environments in which children grow up, notably their family, school and their network of friends (Figure 2.1). Certain groups of children may face specific risks such as encountering hate speech or discrimination online, much like they do in offline environments. These risks may arise due to individual characteristics such as disability, sexual orientation, or belonging to a minority group.
Source: OECD (2021[1]), Measuring What Matters for Child Well-being and Policies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e82fded1-en.
Children's activities, behaviours and connections in the digital world are influenced by those they experience in the physical world (Figure 2.1, outer ring B). These activities can either complement each other (e.g., using social media to connect with friends from the physical world) or compete with each other (e.g., screen time replacing physical activities or in-person games). Therefore, it is crucial to consider how the activities, behaviours and relationships developed in the various environments interact with each other, and how this affects the various dimensions of child well-being (including physical health, cognitive development and learning, socio-emotional skills, and mental health).
Children's digital engagement depend on the protection, resources, supports, limits, and constraints that exist in the different environments where they spend time (essentially the family, school, network of friends, and places where they meet up with friends or participate in extracurricular activities) (Figure 2.1, outer ring C). This set is governed by regulations, legal obligations, restrictions, standards, and codes established by governments and relevant authorities to guide the development of digital services accessible to children. It is further supported policies aimed at educating and informing a wide range of stakeholders, including children, parents, and education and health professionals (Figure 2.1, outer ring D).
The amount and type of resources and supports received in these environments notably in terms of access to digital devices, protection, support, control, and advice they can receive from others, may vary across children depending on families’ socio-economic status and the type of neighbourhood where they live. These resources are key for children to develop digital literacy and learn to navigate the digital world safely, responsibly, and respectfully. Conversely, when children's digital activities at home lack adequate support and supervision, they may spend most of their digital time unsupervised, increasing the risk of encountering inappropriate content or behaviours without the skills to respond effectively (Fam et al., 2022[6]; Loladze, 2020[7]). Additionally, family-related factors can create vulnerabilities affecting children's digital learning and/or exposure to digital risks. For instance, in Spain, one study found that children with mothers working evenings and with lower educational levels allocate on average less time to educational and social interactions with parents and more time to unsupervised screen-based activities (Gracia and García-Román, 2018[8]). Furthermore, dysfunctional family dynamics, such as inter-parental conflict and childhood maltreatment, can exacerbate the risk of children developing problematic social media and/or Internet use2 (Geurts et al., 2023[9]; Anderson, Steen and Stavropoulos, 2017[10]; Vossen et al., 2024[11]). The digital practices of parents also influence both their parenting and children's digital behaviours (Reich and Madigan, 2025[12]), highlighting the need to consider the impact of digital transformation on the family environment and its overall functioning.
The network of friends and relationships with peers also influence how the Internet and online social networks are used. Positive peer relationships and strong ties with friends are associated with using social media and the Internet to stay connected. In contrast, weak attachment to peers increases the risk of problematic Internet or social media use (Musetti et al., 2022[13]; Anderson, Steen and Stavropoulos, 2017[10]). Globally, adolescents who indicate lower levels of social support from their parents, peers and teachers are found to be more likely to engage in problematic behaviours (cyberbullying perpetration, problematic social media use) (Boer et al., 2020[14]; van Duin, Heinz and Willems, 2021[15]; OECD, 2024[16]).
The school environment plays a crucial role in shaping how students use digital devices by fostering a positive and structured approach to digital technology, thereby enhancing its benefits and mitigating potential downsides (OECD, 2022[17]; 2024[18]). Key strategies for enhancing digital education include integrating digital literacy into the curriculum, ensuring access to quality educational resources, and offering regular teacher training with robust technical support. Implementing comprehensive Internet safety policies, encouraging collaborative learning, and promoting digital well-being are also essential. Additionally, involving parents through workshops and communication, creating innovative learning spaces, establishing student leadership and peer mentoring programs, and conducting regular assessments of digital practices are components of policies that education systems can implement to foster children’s digital skills (OECD, 2023[19]). The involvement of parents and caregivers is especially crucial in helping both parents and children understand the risks associated with the digital environment, recognise health and well-being concerns, identify misinformation, and implement effective supervision of children’s online time and accessible content (see Chapter 5).
The use of digital tools at school – whether to learn how to use them, to support teaching activities, or to regulate the use of personal devices – is also governed by rules and standards that can limit their use or promote good practices (OECD, 2020[20]) (Figure 2.1, outer ring D). More broadly, the overall emotional and relational support children receive from parents, friends, and teachers seems to help prevent or reduce the development of problematic digital tool usage (Mascheroni, 2018[21]; OECD, 2023[19]). Policies and initiatives that promote a supportive environment at home or school are therefore likely to mitigate the risk of developing problematic and risky behaviours online. The array of policies, standards, and legal regulations governing the digital sphere, including the use of digital tools in schools and which help promote a supportive family environment, are then key to promote de diffusion of healthy, safe, and respectful digital practices among children (OECD, 2021[22]).
Measuring what matters for child well-being in the digital environment requires primarily considering the outcome domains affected by the use of digital technologies, the type of digital tools children have access to and use, and the digital activities, practices and connections they engage in. This includes identifying the digital devices children use (such as computers, tablets, and smartphones) and the activities they engage in, such as social media, video streaming, gaming, online communication, browsing, and educational tasks. It also includes examining the nature of their engagement – whether active (e.g., searching for information or using learning apps), interactive (e.g., engaging with social media), or passive (e.g., browsing the web) – and quantifying the amount of time they dedicate to each activity. Other factors that characterise engagement in digital activities, such as motivations and pre-existing vulnerabilities, are crucial to consider as they influence how online interactions are experienced and perceived (see Chapter 4 for further details).
Many dimensions of children's well-being are potentially affected by their involvement in the digital world. First and foremost, their psychological well-being, through the fun or satisfaction that can be associated with certain activities (e.g. video games, social media use); however, psychological well-being can also be negatively affected, as can their mental health, due to the adverse experiences that the digital world can provide (e.g. cyber-bullying, grooming, etc.) (OECD, 2024[16]). As underlined by the UNICEF Initiative on Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children, the resources of the digital world can also be mobilised to stimulate socio-emotional skills such as children’s emotional regulation, sense of security, creativity, self-realisation, and other significant dimensions of their well-being (UNICEF Innocenti, 2024[23]), Box 2.1.).
The digital space is also filled with devices, apps, and platforms that can enhance children's learning and positively impact their educational outcomes. However, the cognitive development of young children can be negatively affected by excessive3 or passive screen time, which may limit the learning opportunities available in the physical world. Finally, children's physical and mental health can also be impacted by their online activities, particularly if these activities replace physical exercise and encourage a more sedentary lifestyle, or if children are exposed to inappropriate content or behaviour online (see Chapters 3 and 4).
Measuring what matters for child digital well-being and its monitoring also requires prioritising what can impact not only children’s immediate well-being, but also their development and future skills and well-being. Such a forward-looking approach involves identifying at-risk behaviours, as well as factors which, in the different environments in which children live, can turn digital activities into opportunities to learn, gain self-confidence or strengthen children’s group identities and social relationships with their peers and other community members. At the same time, it involves identifying the risks and weaknesses arising from children’s environments, which can lead to problematic use of digital devices or a lack of knowledge regarding how to identify and address the risks of the digital world.
A global approach to child well-being is essential to fully understand the influence of the digital environment on children’s well-being and its connection to other aspects of their lives. This influence primarily depends on the activities, practices, and connections children develop within the digital environment. However, these are shaped by and interact with various factors, including the design and delivery of digital services to protect children in the digital spaces, as well as the resources and vulnerabilities stemming from children’s physical and social environments – such as material conditions, family dynamics, school settings, peer interactions, and social networks. For instance, a child’s ability to seize opportunities and avoid risks when engaging with digital technology depends on their digital skills and the protective factors they have developed at school, at home, or through interactions with peers. Not all children have access to the same resources and support in their physical and social environments to navigate digital spaces safely. As a result, significant inequalities exist in how children engage with digital services and are protected from its risks – mirroring inequalities found in the offline world (Holmarsdottir, 2024[24]). This underscores the critical importance of designing digital services in a way that safeguards children from potential harm.
Finally, three last characteristics need to be considered to properly monitor children's involvement in the digital world and its impact:
Age- and stage sensitivity: The way and the extent to which children use digital technology, as well the impact of that, varies with age. Indicators thus need to take such variation into account; therefore, the measures and indicators developed should be age-sensitive and adjusted to the developmental stages of children.
Agility: Digital space is a fast-changing environment. New technologies are continuously being developed bringing with them new opportunities, and risks. This dynamic setting requires that we constantly update our understanding of how children use and engage with digital technology. Indicators must reflect this.
Reflect children’s views: Understanding the drivers of digital child well-being requires listening and learning about children’s and adolescents’ experiences in the digital world. Children’s views on what is important for their well-being, their understanding of benefits and risks associated with digital activities and technologies should be reflected in indicators used for measurement. Taking children’s views into account is particularly necessary to find the balance between the autonomy and responsibility desired by teenagers exploring the web and the help they may seek when faced with a problem (Johnson and Francis, 2022[25]).
The Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project, led by UNICEF and the Western Sydney University, aims to explore how digital technology impacts children's well-being and how design choices can enhance positive outcomes. The focus is not only on avoiding harm but also on creating additional value of digital technology. In 2022, the project developed a framework for children to improve the understanding of children’s digital experience and their well-being. By involving children in the process, the project sought to ensure that their insights and needs shape the development of digital experiences. Crafted to be both user-friendly and empirically grounded, the framework serves as a resource for businesses developing digital products and services for children, as well as for governments aiming to integrate well-being considerations into their digital transformation efforts (UNICEF Innocenti, 2024[23]). The framework considers the following components for well-being:
Competence: Children perceive digital play experiences as opportunities to enhance their competence by completing tasks, acquiring new knowledge, and solving problems.
Emotional regulation: Children use digital play to manage their emotions, unwind, and recharge, facilitating their ability to engage with friends and their surroundings.
Self-actualisation: Digital play fosters purpose, improved social engagement, and positive self-perception, highlighting the significance of supporting these aspects in play experiences.
Empowerment: Feelings of autonomy and agency should be empowered by digital play, enabling children to feel in control and support them in their decision-making. Digital play can provide a space for them to develop such feelings.
Social connection: In digital environments, it is crucial to foster and support safe social connections with peers, family, and important figures.
Creativity: Children's digital play should boost curiosity, cultivate openness to new experiences, and bolster creativity, which is closely intertwined with learning.
Safety and security: Feeling and being safe and secure is the very basis of children’s digital engagement and well-being.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion, digital play experiences should be accessible to children of diverse backgrounds, abilities, ages, and cultures.
Source: UNICEF Innocenti (2024[23]), Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children: Digital technology, play and child well-being, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Florence, https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/media/8056/file/UNICEF-Innocenti-RITEC-P2-report-2024.pdf.
The body of international data available to map children's experiences in the digital world is relatively limited. Some surveys have been specifically developed to document children's online experiences. For instance, the EU Kids Online Survey covers children from age 9 to 16 in 19 European countries, with questions on access and use of digital tools and several dimensions of children’s well-being and environments (Box 2.2). However, the age of the data and the limited geographical coverage of OECD countries mean that these data cannot be used to describe the most recent situation of children online.
The Global (EU) Kids Online research network established in 2006 is dedicated to contributing and providing better understanding of European children’s online experiences. The network conducted a survey, interviewing children and parents from 19 European countries between 2017 and 2019, with the specific year and some methodological aspects in data collection varying by country. Compared to earlier waves it adapts to major shifts in the digital realm since 2010, including the rise of smartphones and new platforms like TikTok (Smahel et al., 2020[26]). Children aged 9 to 16 years were asked questions on multiple dimensions and levels of their digital experiences and lives. The survey included the following aspects relevant for child digital well-being:
Access to digital technology: How often does the child have access to a mobile phone/smartphone, a desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer, a tablet or else?
Time use: How long does the child spend on the Internet during a regular weekday and a regular weekend-day? Monthly frequency of online activities like looking for information about work or study opportunities, using the Internet for schoolwork, using the Internet to talk to people from other countries, looking for news online, playing online games, visiting social network sites, and more.
School, peers, and community: Feeling of belonging at school, feeling safe at school, support at school, teachers suggesting (safe) use of digital technology, support by teachers with digital environment, social support from friends, active mediation regarding digital space by friends.
Opportunities: Feeling safe on the Internet, finding other people kind and helpful on the Internet, knowing what to do if someone acts online in an unpleasant way, talking about personal things online and not offline face-to-face.
Risks: (Frequency of) overall negative online experiences, reaction to negative online experience, contact and interaction with unknown people online, meeting such people offline, online and offline victimisation, online and offline aggression, sexual content, grooming, harmful user-generated content, data misuse, excessive Internet use, sharenting.
Skills: Digital skills like knowing how to save a photo found online, changing privacy settings, checking in information found is true, knowing which information (not) to share, removing people from the contact list, creating and posting online videos or music, editing or making basic changes to online content others have created, installing apps on a mobile device, keeping track of the costs of mobile app use, making in-app purchases.
Inequalities: Perceived discrimination (potential reasons being origin of family, skin colour, religion, height or weight, disability, lack of money, behaviour, beliefs/opinion, others. Survey allows for disaggregation by gender, age, living situation.
Subjective well-being: Life satisfaction in a rating from 0 (worst possible life) to 10 (best possible life), self-efficacy, psychological difficulties (conduct problems, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity).
Source: Zlamal et al. (2020[27]), EU Kids Online 2020: Technical report, EU Kids Online, https://doi.org/10.21953/lse.04dr94matpy7 and Global Kids Online.
The data used in this report come from surveys of middle-aged children and young adolescents,4 whose primary purpose is not to investigate their experience of the digital world. However, they include blocks of questions that are useful for understanding certain aspects of children's involvement in the digital world and linking this information to information on their well-being or their personal, family, or school environment. Three sources of data are being used: the 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys, the 2021-22 Health Behaviours of School-Aged Surveys for adolescents, and the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys nationally representative samples of young people aged 15 across 70 countries, including OECD countries. The main focus of the survey is young people’s ability to apply their mathematical, reading, and science skills to real-life challenges, but it also includes several questions related to students' access to and use of the Internet and digital devices. A more comprehensive set of information on student’s digital experience is provided in the 2022 PISA wave which included a special module on the integration of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning. The module documents how students access and use ICT resources in and outside of school and to identify how teachers, schools, and education systems integrate ICT into pedagogical practices and learning environments. It provides information on various aspects of students' access to digital devices and the Internet, use of digital technologies for learning and leisure, their digital skills, online behaviour and safety (including information risk-taking behaviours and exposure to various types of risks), teacher use of digital technologies, and the impact of digital technologies on their learning and well-being (Table 2.1).
Source: OECD (2022[28]), PISA 2022 Database, https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/pisa-2022-database.html, and OECD (2023[29]), “PISA 2022 ICT Framework”, in PISA 2022 Assessment and Analytical Framework, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/dfe0bf9c-en.
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey is an international research study conducted in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe. It assesses the health and well-being of adolescents across Europe, North America, and -more recently- Central Asia, using nationally representative samples at ages 11, 13, and 15. It collects data on the health behaviours, well-being, and social environments of adolescents, and includes information on cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration, and a section on electronic media communication. The aim is to document the relationship between the intensity of electronic media communication and various outcomes, both positive (e.g., peer support) and negative (e.g., problematic social media use, cybervictimisation), at international and national levels.
The intensity of electronic media communication (EMC) is measured with question on how often teenagers have online contact with different groups of people, including close friends, friends from a larger friend group, friends known only through the Internet, and "people other than friends" (e.g., family, classmates, teachers).
Problematic social media use symptoms is assessed using the original validated nine-item Social Media Disorder (SMD) scale with a dichotomous (No/Yes) answer format (Van Den Eijnden, Lemmens and Valkenburg, 2016[30]). The aim is to determine if teenagers have experienced situations in the past year that could be considered problematic, such as constantly thinking about using social media, feeling dissatisfied due to wanting more social media time, feeling bad when unable to use it, unsuccessfully trying to reduce their usage, neglecting other activities for social media, having arguments with others over their social media use, lying about their usage time, using social media to escape negative feelings, or having serious conflicts with family members because of their social media use. “Social media” encompass social network sites (e.g. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram) and instant messengers (e.g. WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook messenger).
Finally, the surveys on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provide information on Internet access and digital devices (own computer, tablet, or smartphone) owned by 10-year-old children (in their “fourth grade”) at home. The data also includes information on Internet use skills, particularly the ability to find information on the Internet and discern the trustworthiness of websites, as well as whether the child has been a victim of cyberbullying.
In all, the international data available covers adolescents but not younger children, for whom the use of digital technologies also raises important questions about the impact on well-being and developmental outcomes. The available cross-national data cover important aspects relating to access to and use of digital tools and self-reported views on digital literacy. They also mainly document exposure to certain online risks (exposure to inappropriate content, discriminatory or offensive comments, cyberbullying, problematic social media use) and not so much the positive online interaction experiences that children can also have. It does not document, for example, whether children feel that their experience of the Internet and social media contributed to strengthen friendship, make new friends, or alleviate feelings of loneliness. Nor do they document the extent to which the content accessible on the Internet has been used to get information or supports on matters critical to their physical or psychological health. However, evidence shows that teenagers, for example, use the Internet to seek preventative health care and specific medical information, including sexual health (Park and Kwon, 2018[31]). Moreover, digital health interventions are being developed to support children with mental health issues, incorporating features that align with their preferences for engagement, such as videos, minimal text, personalization options, connectivity with others, and text message reminders (Liverpool et al., 2020[32]; Bergin et al., 2020[33]; Whitehead et al., 2024[34]).
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← 1. Online well-being refers to an individual's psychological and emotional state shaped by digital interactions, focusing on factors like life satisfaction and connectedness. Offline well-being, on the other hand, stems from experiences in the physical world, including face-to-face relationships, physical health, and personal activities. The two domains influence each other, as excessive online engagement can hinder offline experiences, while positive online interactions can enhance real-world connections.
← 2. Problematic social media use refers to excessive engagement with social media that negatively impacts a person's well-being, relationships, and daily responsibilities, often involving compulsive checking, emotional distress, and neglect of other duties. Problematic Internet use is similar but broader, involving excessive or compulsive behaviours related to Internet activities such as browsing, gaming, or other online behaviours, resulting in negative impacts on personal well-being and daily functioning.
← 3. Excessive screen time refers to spending more time on digital screens than is beneficial for physical and/or mental health, with no universal threshold for what is excessive, as its impact depends on the activities, individual traits, and context, though a few studies and expert guidelines often suggest limiting leisure screen time to under 2-3 hours daily to mitigate risks to health and well-being (see Chapters 4 and 5).
← 4. Middle-aged children typically refer to children aged 6 to 11 years, corresponding to the later stages of childhood and primary school years; Young adolescents usually include those aged 12 to 14 years, marking the early phase of adolescence and often overlapping with middle school or early secondary school years.