National Report

Netherlands

PATCH-WORLd – PArents and CHildren Working, ORganising and Learning together

135285-LLP-1-2007-1-IT-KA3-KA3MP
Grant Agreement 2007- 3620/001-001
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein

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General Background of the Survey

Setting

In The Netherlands the survey concerning the use of computers in families was carried
out with a group of children of a school in Linne and their parents. Linne is a fairly
small village in the southern half of the province of Limburg and this province is the
most southern part of the country. The name of the school is De Triangel, it has a
catholic signature, which is most common in the southern parts of the country.
Information concerning the school (in Dutch) can be found at: www.triangel-linne.nl.

The initial contact with the school was kindly established by Mrs. Smith-Voerman of
Euneos, who not only lives in this community, she also contributes regularly to the
extra activities that the school deploys. Her daughter and grandchild participated in
the interviews, for which Mr. Fer Heuts, teacher at the school and our regular contact
there, made the arrangements.

With a number of inhabitants of just over 3700 in 2006, Linne is a typical rural
community. However, in The Neherlands this makes hardly a difference with regard to
the regular in house facilities, like the availability of ADSL. Another relevant
characteristic in this survey of Dutch family life is the fact that PC's are present in
almost every household and that internet access is available in over 95% of family
homes and that more than 65% of these homes have a broadband connection.

Concerning the penetration of PC's and the internet in daily life, there is hardly a
difference between rural communities and towns. But the availability of outdoor
playing facilities is highly different in towns and rural environments. Most or all of the
children stated that in the end they preferred playing (outside) with their friends,
which is very well possible in a community like Linne. When such facilities are lacking,
as is the case in some of the major cities in our country, the choice of children to
spend most of their leisure time with games on their PC (and watching TV) is at least
understandable, given the lack of outdoor alternatives.

Therefore it is not certain that the same results would be obtained when carrying out
interviews with children in a town like Maastricht. We may decide to include such a

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group of youngsters and their parents in a second phase of our survey.

Procedure

The procedure was quite straightforward: during a meeting with Mr. Fer Heuts, dates
were selected for the interviews. These dates were communicated to the children and
their parents with an invitation to participate. Nine duo's or trio's of a parent and one
or two pupils enlisted. The interviews were held in a small office within the school
during two subsequent mornings. All interviews were recorded and without exception
the children and parents gave permission to use the recordings of the interviews
within the framework of the Patchworld project.

The interviews were conducted by Joost Thissen of Reflexion, assisted by Mr. Dave
Janssen who took care of the recordings. Mrs. Smith-Voerman was present to support
the process if needed. The children and their parents were interviewed together, which
may have influenced the answers given, although the impression of the interview
team was that this may have happened in one of the interviews, but most certainly
not in the others.

The interviews have been summarized in the tables below, following closely the
structure as agreed in the first partnership meeting.

As a standard we asked the pupil to describe the PC setting at home, from there the
conversation would develop quite naturally.

Summary of results

AREA General situation overview for the

Netherlands: sociological background
GENERAL USE OF ICT A typical Dutch family is a small nucleus, consisting
IN THE FAMILY of (1 or 2) parents and 2 children on average (2.3
children to be statistically precise).

Grandparents generally do not live in the same house

and their level of PC and internet skills is generally

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
dramatically lower than that of their children and
grandchildren. They succeed better in preserving
their traditional lifestyle (positively stated), or they
are not involved in new developments as a direct
result of their isolation (negatively stated).

Differences between urban areas and the countryside

do hardly affect the penetration of IT-applications
and internet in Dutch households. Most parents and
older children are familiar with ways to retrieve
information over the internet and with simple
transactions like shopping, second hand auctions and
banking.

Apart from making life easier these developments

seem to have no decisive effect on the way the
family operates: after school or work they have some
time for themselves (sports, homework, meeting
friends, after that they (still) eat at six pm, then they
may go their own way again for a while and return to
the living room to spend time together and/or say
good night. Seen from this perspective, the PC and
the internet seem to have little impact.

There is a general division between parents and

children when it comes to using PC's and internet.
Few parents play PC or online games meant for
children; few children are involved in what their
parents may do (banking, shopping). Each operates
in a separate world, which of course brings along
some risks.

Unlike in the USA the discussion on the dangers of

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
the internet is limited of scope. We don´t really mind
when our sons look up pictures of naked people: they
are bound to see at least a few in the course of their
lives anyway and they may have seen their family
members undressed in the bathroom at home.
Viewing explicit sex is a different matter but still not
prominent in discussion.

When it comes to child porn, child abuse, animal

abuse, dealing drugs or weapons, praising violence,
invitations to join terrorist groups and other nasty
business, everybody in the Netherlands will agree
that sites promoting such activities should be banned
and the initiators persecuted. But this is considered
by most people to be a public or collective
responsibility and in first instance the responsibility
of internet providers and the government. The first
should block malicious websites and the government
should take legal action against any violators of the
law, including those who operate on the internet.

Individual protective action at family level against

threats that we are exposed to over the internet, is in
most cases limited to installing anti-virus and anti-
spam software and on top of that perhaps a firewall
to protect the wireless network at home against
intruders. Wifi's are rapidly gaining ground.
FAMILY The basic ways of family life are not immediately
COMMUNICATION AND influenced by the availability of an internet
RELATIONSHIPS connection at home. It is the relation to the outside
THROUGH ICT world that is changing: instead of going to a library
information will be available in seconds when a

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
search engine or Wikipedia is addressed.

By the way: also IT experts do no longer rely on their

equipment handbooks and software installation
guides:when a problem occurs, the main
characteristics (the error messages themselves) are
“googled” or sent to dedicated platforms and a
solution may be found within seconds, simply
because “some other experts came across the same
problem before and they all are eager to show off
with their knowledge or just willing to help others.
ICT GAMES AND ICT games, especially the online games in which
RECREATION players may form cooperative teams, have a certain
element of attraction. But the children we spoke with
showed a clear preference for playing in traditional
ways, i.e. with live people instead of in a virtual
community.

There is of course a select and distinctive group that

is playing games on the internet all the time, loosing
track of their environment as they go on. Frankly,
this is to be considered as a new kind of addiction, no
less serious than any other addiction. Protecting
children against such addictions is based on the same
kind of parental vigilance as protecting them from
any other potential bad influence, like alcohol, drugs,
gambling or even excessive use of a mobile phone.

After the early days computer games seem to have

lost some of their attractive power on adults, even
though the quality of graphics and general
functionality and complexity was improved. But for

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
children and youngsters the attractiveness of games
has only become stronger. In the meantime their
parents have shifted their focus from Super Mario
and tennis to sorting out the best destination for
their next holiday or weekend, finding a well
recommended restaurant, news from the cinemas in
town and so on.

Apart from being an access point to leisure activities,

the PC with internet access has become the home
administration platform and perhaps it's use for
internet banking and similar services has more
impact on society than the games: banks are closing
offices as less customers make use of them, leaving
the elderly to find the door of their familiar offices
closed. Town halls and other authorities introduce
digital desks at high speed now; many customer
services only operate by mail contact or at best a call
centre: these changes make a real difference to
those who were used and still dependent on the old
services. Less educated people, but also immigrants
and the elderly are left behind.

One cheerful point should also be mentioned: in

general our E-Society with it's digital services as far
better accessible to young people with a disability
than the traditional services. A potential danger is
that disabled people won't leave their house
anymore, as they can enter external services easier
from home than by physically going there.

The emergence of the E-society has found a natural

partner in developments like e-learning and e-work.

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
Online games are just a small and perhaps not so
important part of that process.
EDUCATION THROUGH Since the early days of school TV and even more
ICT after the first distant learning applications were
introduced, there has been a constantly increasing
awareness of the importance of new technologies for
education, like computer based learning and internet
based learning.

Nowadays schools in the Netherlands are equipped

with at least a standard set of PC's with broadband
internet access, allowing all pupils to engage in e-
learning activities during a substantial part of their
learning time. Moreover, schools count on the fact
that their pupils will have equivalent facilities
available at home as they indeed have in most cases.

Learning has partly moved to a new platform,

enabling pupils to communicate and cooperate, while
bridging geographical borders and discovering the
importance of a common language for this purpose.
And that language again can be learned on the PC ...
ICT RELATED SAFETY There is a general awareness in the Netherlands that
AND SECURITY children need protection and support, but not to
exclude all that may hurt their eyes or ears. In the
end Dutch society will promote educational
approaches of both parents and teachers that will
enable children to handle external influence in a
sensible and balanced way. Exceptional catastrophes
like the killing of school children by their class mates
will not easily overthrow that general approach,
certainly as long as it is not clear what caused the

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AREA General situation overview for the
Netherlands: sociological background
actors to act in the way they did.

In such a case protective measures will focus on the

ease with which weapons can be obtained by anyone,
rather than pointing at a rather abstract and potential
source like violence on TV and the internet, although
there are pressure groups doing the latter.

Structured protection procedures are recommended

by the government, among others in TV-spots, but
not every parent thinks that these are useful. Often
the home wireless network is protected against
viruses and use by the “neighbours”. Children's locks
blocking certain websites are recommended as well,
but they seems not widespread and this little survey
confirms that.

Recommendations like having no camera connected

to the PC and placing the children's PC (when it has
internet access) in the living room, may be followed
by many. But in general the need of such protections
is not felt as highly urgent.

PC and internet safety is certainly an issue on TV, in

magazines and newspapers, but calls for action are
generally not felt as alarming, except when a real
nasty event features the news. Just like most people
start wondering why the dikes and dams were not
high enough, only after the water is flooding the
country. And maybe this is a typical Dutch attitude.

Additional remarks:

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Summarized interviews

1st Interview: girl plus father

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: mother, dad, the
IN THE FAMILY girl of 11 years old and a younger brother.

There are four PC's, linked in a network and a

Nintendo. Dad is the network controller and happily
boasts knowledge at full professional level.
FAMILY For the father the PC replaces to some extent the TV,
COMMUNICATION AND but not the newspaper. Internet is considered most
RELATIONSHIPS useful when specific information is required. It seems
THROUGH ICT that dad and daughter are the main users of PC
equipment. The girl is allowed to spent time on the
PC within “reasonable” limits. Dad is involved with IT
on a (semi)-professional basis.

It is not clear if the mother also makes use of the PC;

the Nintendo is primarily the domain of the younger
brother.
ICT GAMES AND PC and internet games or leisure applications that the
RECREATION girl likes to use are (Habbo Hotel) and MSN.

Apart from this she engages in water scouting, street

dance and other external activities. She prefers
playing with friends over playing PC games all the
time.
EDUCATION THROUGH The girl uses the PC quite a lot for school; primarily
ICT to write papers. Writing papers is a recurring task at
this stage, for which information is retrieved from
Wikipedia and a few other sources (accessed through

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
search engines). A type course was ordered via
school and completed by the girl who is capable now
of blind typing.

The PC is more used for education than games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY Structured protection procedures are implemented.
AND SECURITY The home network is heavily protected against
viruses and suspicious websites by various safety
features. They are installed and controlled by the
father. The girl is aware of their function, but she
does not know how they operate. She was never
confronted with unwanted or unpleasant content. By
deliberate decision there´s no camera connected to
the PC.

ICT/internet safety is an issue in family discussions.

Additional remarks: for the father the interview clearly had another function than for
the interviewers (or for the girl): he was primarily interested in presenting his views
on software and the Microsoft monopoly in this field, supported by displaying his high
level of subject relevant knowledge. He seemed surprised that the interview was not
dedicated to these aspects.

2nd Interview: girl plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: mother, dad, the
IN THE FAMILY girl of 11 years old and a younger brother at the age
of 8.

There is one desktop PC, a laptop and a gameboy.

FAMILY Mom uses the PC to find information, but also to
COMMUNICATION AND carry out small business and household related tasks,

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
RELATIONSHIPS like internet banking. Internet is considered useful for
THROUGH ICT finding specific information.

All family members make some use of the PC

equipment.
ICT GAMES AND The girl uses various games and leisure applications
RECREATION like MSN.

Apart from this she engages in external activities.

She prefers playing with friends over playing PC
games all the time.
EDUCATION THROUGH The girl uses the PC quite a lot for school; primarily
ICT to write papers. Writing papers is a recurring task.
For information search she does not use Wikipedia,
but other sources like search engines. She has
completed a type course.

The PC is more used for education than games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY No structured protection procedures are
AND SECURITY implemented. The incoming mail is filtered by dad
before passing messages on to the children. The
equipment may be protected against viruses, if so
this is installed by the father.

ICT/internet safety is an issue in family discussions.

The children have been warned about the existence
of websites with malicious content. The e-mail
address is not too lightly given to others.

The PC is by deliberate choice situated in the living

room, where parents can supervise.
Additional remarks:

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3d Interview: boy plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: mother, dad, the
IN THE FAMILY boy of 11 years old and a younger brother at the age
of 8.

There are three PC´s, the boy´s PC has internet

access.
FAMILY Mom is an experienced PC user; she has built her
COMMUNICATION AND own webshop for second hand clothes. She uses the
RELATIONSHIPS PC for any suitable purpose: to find information,
THROUGH ICT private business, work and leisure (e-mail, Hyves and
MSN) . Dad uses the PC primarily for games and
music.

All family members make use of the PC equipment.

ICT GAMES AND The boy uses various games and leisure applications
RECREATION like Hyves and above all else MSN. Furthermore he
plays games (motor cross, soccer.

Apart from this he engages in sport activities,

especially soccer, of which he is a great fan. He
clearly prefers playing (soccer) with friends over
playing PC games all the time.
EDUCATION THROUGH The boy uses the PC a lot for school; primarily to
ICT write papers. Writing papers is a recurring task,
which is done in Word. For information search he
relies on search engines. The school clearly relies on
the availability of a PC with internet access at their
pupil´s homes: they simply need it for their
homework.

The PC is more used for education than games.

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
ICT RELATED SAFETY Structured protection procedures are implemented by
AND SECURITY the mother, like anti-virus software, anti-spyware and
a child lock for internet websites. MSN chat sessions
are stored for monitoring the content.

ICT/internet safety is not a regular issue in family

discussions: the protection measures should make
sure that no malicious content is viewed by the
children.
Additional remarks:

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4th Interview: boy and girl plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: mother, dad, the
IN THE FAMILY boy of 11 years old and his sister of 11. They both
answer the questions.

There are three PC´s, both children have their own

laptop with internet access.
FAMILY Mom does not use the PC very much, only for
COMMUNICATION AND searching second hand markets and to find holiday
RELATIONSHIPS destinations.
THROUGH ICT Dad is a software engineer; he has taken care of all
necessary security measures and mom does not
know any details.

All family members make use of the PC equipment.

ICT GAMES AND The boy plays various games and has made his own
RECREATION website about “Domino Day” (his own version of that
event, which he also carries out with friends in real
life).

Apart from this he engages in sport activities,

especially gymnastics.

The girl is fond of sheep, she also made her own

website about the subject. Apart from that she is
involved in rescue swimming.

Both kids are no PC or internet addicts: they like real

life playing better than the internet.
EDUCATION THROUGH Both children use the PC a lot for school; primarily to
ICT write papers. They writing their papers for school in
Word. For information search they use both Wikipedia

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
and search engines, but the girl will start with looking
in books first.

The PC is more used for education than games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY Structured protection procedures are implemented by
AND SECURITY the father and mother does not know what exactly is
done for protection, probably anti-virus software,
anti-spyware and perhaps a child lock for internet
websites.

ICT/internet safety is not a regular issue in family

discussions: the protection measures should make
sure that no malicious content is viewed by the
children.
Additional remarks:

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5th Interview: boy plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of three persons: mother, the boy
IN THE FAMILY of 11 years old and a younger sister.

There are two PC´s in the house; one with internet

access, situated in the living room and the other
without internet access with games on CD-ROM.
FAMILY Mom uses the PC quite a lot for work: she makes the
COMMUNICATION AND work planning schemes for her department in the
RELATIONSHIPS hospital.,Furthermore she uses the PC/internet for
THROUGH ICT home business (internet banking), but also to chat
(MSN) and to find information concerning leisure
activities.

All family members use the PC's.

ICT GAMES AND The boy plays various games and has made his own
RECREATION website, about “Domino Day” (!), in which he also
cooperates with friends. He is a regular user of Funny
Games, but he also uses a Nintendo for other games.

But he likes real life playing better than the internet.

EDUCATION THROUGH He uses the PC a lot for school; primarily to write
ICT papers (in Word). They writing their papers for school
in Word. For information search they use both
Wikipedia and search engines, but the girl will start
with looking in books first.

The PC is more used for education than games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY Structured protection procedures are implemented by
AND SECURITY the father and mother does not know what exactly is
done for protection, probably anti-virus software,
anti-spyware and perhaps a child lock for internet

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
websites.

ICT/internet safety is not a regular issue in family

discussions: the protection measures should make
sure that no malicious content is viewed by the
children.
Additional remarks:

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6th Interview: boy plus father

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: father, mother,
IN THE FAMILY the boy of 11 years old and a younger brother of 9.

There are 3 PC´s in the house (laptops); one with

internet access, situated in the living room, meant
for the boys. The other laptops are for business use.
FAMILY Dad uses the PC quite a lot for work: he runs his own
COMMUNICATION AND company and works often or most of the time at
RELATIONSHIPS home. Furthermore he uses the PC/internet for all
THROUGH ICT home business activities: internet banking, taxes,
insurances, shopping and information retrieval.

All family members use the PC's.

ICT GAMES AND The boy plays various games, among others Habbo
RECREATION Hotel, he chats with friends using MSN.

Apart form that he enjoys Jazz Ballet and before that

he was playing handball. He now also plays the hobo
and/or klarinet

He likes real life playing better than PC's or the

internet.
EDUCATION THROUGH He uses the PC also for school, to write papers (in
ICT Word). For information search he uses both Wikipedia
and search engines.

The PC is equally used for education and games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY No structured protection procedures are
AND SECURITY implemented and is done by deliberate choice: both
father and mother are convinced that children need
to become self directing in this field. Their protection
should be based on their own awareness of what is

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
acceptable and what not.

Therefore in this family ICT/internet safety is a

regular issue in family discussions: awareness of the
children should enable them to make deliberate
choices, whatever they may be.

At the same time the father is a little bit worried

about the time spent by his son on the PC/Internet
...
Additional remarks:

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7th Interview: boy plus father

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The family consists of four persons: father, mother,
IN THE FAMILY the boy of 11 years old and a younger brother of 8.

There are 3 PC´s in the house (2 laptops); one with

internet access is meant for the boys. The laptops
are for business use by dad who is a operations
controller for a large IT company.
FAMILY Dad uses the PC quite a lot for work. Furthermore he
COMMUNICATION AND uses the PC/internet for literally everything:
RELATIONSHIPS administration, internet banking, taxes, insurances,
THROUGH ICT shopping and information retrieval. The PC replaces
the newspaper (news sites), but not yet the TV.

All family members use the PC's.

ICT GAMES AND The boy plays various games, among others Soccer
RECREATION Manager and what he finds on Funny Games. He
hardly uses MSN.

Apart form that he plays soccer as a regular sport

activity. He likes real life playing better than PC's or
the internet.
EDUCATION THROUGH He uses the PC also for school, to write papers (in
ICT Word). For information search he uses both Wikipedia
and search engines. Father will now and then give
him hints about useful websites and information
sources.

The PC is equally used for education and games.

ICT RELATED SAFETY No structured protection procedures are
AND SECURITY implemented. It isn however not clear if this reflects
an explicit conviction that children should develop

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
their proper sense of responsibility or that the
standard protection measures taken by providers are
sufficient in the parent´s view.
Additional remarks: the father foresees a continuing growth of the information
society and fears that this may result in an impersonal community.

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8th Interview: boy plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The core family consists of two persons: the boy of
IN THE FAMILY 11 years old and his mother. Mothers' friend is not
with them every day.

There is 1 PC with internet access in the house, used

by all.
FAMILY Mom uses the PC for e-mail, Hyves and other leisure
COMMUNICATION AND activities. She has little knowledge of computers and
RELATIONSHIPS the boy knows already more about that than she
THROUGH ICT does.
ICT GAMES AND The boy plays various games, especially realistic
RECREATION simulations, like Flight simulator, Orbit, Zoo Tycoon
and others. He uses mail a lot and he has his own
address at Hotmail. Through mail he maintains
contacts with former holiday comrades. Besides that
he takes part in forums related to the games he plays
(like for Zoo Tycoon).

Apart from that he plays hockey as a regular sport

activity, training two times a week and playing a
match in the weekend. He likes real life playing just
as much as PC's or the internet.
EDUCATION THROUGH He uses the PC also for school, to write papers (in
ICT Word). For information search he uses both Wikipedia
and search engines.

The PC is more used for games than for education.

ICT RELATED SAFETY No structured protection procedures are
AND SECURITY implemented at all, except for a virus-scanner.
Mother refers to the regular talks she has with the

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
boy about unsafe behaviour on the internet, but in
fact she relies on his sense of responsibility. She
suggests also that maybe she should do more about
this, but she lacks the necessary knowledge.
Additional remarks:

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9th Interview: girl plus mother

AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents

GENERAL USE OF ICT The core family consists of four persons: the mother,
IN THE FAMILY the girl of 11 years old, her older sister of 14 and a
younger brother of 8. Mothers' new friend is not
living with them.

There are 2 PC´s in the house, one with internet

access is placed in the living room and is used by all.
The other PC is in the girls room but has no internet
and is not used very much.
FAMILY Mom uses the PC quite intensively for her work;
COMMUNICATION AND besides that she surfs on the internet to find all sorts
RELATIONSHIPS of information. The children use the PC for leisure
THROUGH ICT activities and for school. Sometimes there is a queue
of those who want to use it.
ICT GAMES AND The girl plays some games, but likes to listen to
RECREATION music on YouTube. She uses MSN for chats with her
friends, but no mail programme.

Apart from that she plays volleyball as a regular

sport activity, but not intensively. she likes real life
playing better than PC's or the internet.
EDUCATION THROUGH She uses the PC for school, especially to write her
ICT papers (in Word). For information search he uses
both Wikipedia and search engines. She completed a
typing course to be more efficient in writing.

The PC is more used for games than for education.

ICT RELATED SAFETY No specific protection procedures are implemented,
AND SECURITY only standard tools like virus-scanner. Mother is very
cautious about privacy issues related to the use of

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AREA RESPONSE given by children and parents
internet and the requests for personal data that
appear on so many web pages, even when they seem
irrelevant for then user.

Unsafe behaviour on the internet is a recurring issue

in family discussions and these talks will help to
prevent the kids from going to sites with doubtful
content. The fact that the PC with internet access is
placed in the living room is another element of child
protection.
Additional remarks: the mother fears that developments on the internet may lead to
loss of privacy. She is keen on this aspect and she was the only parent having a little
doubt about providing the interview recording to the project partners. After being
reassured about preservation of their privacy she agreed to the use of the recordings
within the project.

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