The last few months have seen a deluge of reports on social networking, gaming and teens. Most prominent amongst these has been the Byron Review, commissioned by the government to look at risks and opportunities for young children using games and social networks. Its a very well researched, nuanced and balanced review. I saw Tanya Byron give a midway report at the Oxford Media Convention earlier this year, and was very impressed with her approach and process, in particular the fact that she had received more responses and evidence from kids and teens in her research than from adults, teachers and industry. As a result, its one of the best reviews in this area in the world. Also worth looking at is OFCOM’s response to the Byron Review, with lots of good data and insight from teens.
Around the same time, Kay Withers’ IPPR report “Behind The Screen: The Hidden life Of Youth Online” was released. It covers much of the same ground, but is based on a series of in-depth workshops with 13-18 yr olds, so is stronger on detail and anecdotal evidence than the Byron and OFCOM surveys. I’m not sure if it was commissioned expecting the Byron Review to be a typical piece of top-down government policy, but the IPPR have been outflanked slightly by the fact that the two reports are in broad agreement.
Finally, an ongoing research report from Digizen, commissioned by BECTA, on – you guessed it – young people and social networking. It looks interesting, whilst covering some of the same ground as the previous two. It will be interesting to see the final research as it develops, however.
There you go – plenty of reading to be getting on with. If you’re not too busy using social networks yourself, that is…
