UNICEF published a report on children in a digital world at the end of 2017. In it, the organization highlighted the opportunities that the internet and the importance of digital access in the fight against inequality, but also the risks and the need to implement measures to support and prevent children's uses. In France, children access the Internet and cultural content early on via mobile devices (tablets, smartphones). We have compiled several studies on the digital uses of children in France (leisure, cultural, privacy, time spent) and the perception of their parents.

Widespread use but often overestimated by parents

However, children (8-14 years old) spend more time on tablets, computers or smartphones playing games or watching videos than on social networks. Among 8-10 year olds, the time spent on social networks is 8 minutes per day, compared to nearly 25 minutes for games. The appeal of social networks increases from age 11 onwards and more so for girls. This is consistent with the time when children receive their first digital devices. The Hadopi qualitative study on dematerialized cultural practices highlights three key moments in the evolution of children's practices:

• at 8-9 years old, children listen to their parents, access "simple" contents (Youtube videos, search for a work on google) and still use physical supports (CD, books,...)
• At 10-11 years old, the age of the first smartphone, they download MP3 music to listen to it offline and look for more recent works (especially films) on the Internet:"until about 12 years old, children are less comfortable with technology. It is still often those around them who "provide" the works to children, including in an illicit manner, to protect them from the risks associated with these sites."
• from the age of 12, the needs and the technical ease increase: the teenagers go towards downloading and streaming and detach themselves from the parental supervision.

The knowledge and support of children's digital use is a subject that effectively worries parents: 77% have implemented restrictive measures, and 82% have discussed internet use with their children (Xooloo, 2016). Parents also tend to overestimate the amount of time their children spend on the internet.

It is true, however, that the amount of time children spend on the internet has trended upward between the summer of 2016 and the winter of 2017.

Girls use social networks more than boys but are less protective of their browsing and data

Although social networks involve more issues in terms of privacy protection, girls are less protective of their browsing (anti-advertising software, anti-spyware, settings, etc.). They tend to be less likely to adopt online security practices: for example, 63% of boys report having complicated passwords compared to 57% of girls, and 12% of boys have already given them to a friend compared to 18% of girls. The gap disappears for the 15-18 age group.

The INJEP study report on adolescent socialization and digital uses states: "Regarding practices related to the exposure of oneself and one's privacy, recent studies such as those conducted by American sociologists Eden Litt and Eszter Hargittai (2016) show that young women share more photos of themselves than young men, they select their audience more rigorously and share fewer images publicly. It is also worth noting that female audiences are more often the target of online privacy awareness campaigns (boyd, Hargittai, 2010), which perhaps influences their practices but more importantly implicitly assumes that institutions see them as more at risk of privacy violations, and as more responsible for maintaining some form of online privacy."

An equal percentage of boys and girls aged 11-14 (64%) report having set up their accounts to protect their personal information, but girls are more likely to be helped by family and friends in this process.

With age, practices and information about privacy rights improve but remain incomplete.

[su_quote]The European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) strengthens the protection of children's personal data. The regulation requires parental consent for minors under the age of 16 to register and use digital services. Article 8 of the RGPD, however, gives member states the freedom to lower this threshold to 13 years old. The future Data Protection Act, currently under discussion, will set the age of consent in France without parental authorization. The French Parliament's Law Commission has voted to lower the threshold of consent to 15 years old: this vote does not prejudge the threshold that will finally be retained[/su_quote].

Digital literacy, a process involving parents, peers and platforms