Young Canadians in a Wired World Phase III Quantitative Research Project – Year 2
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Organization
MediaSmarts
Published
2014
Project Leader(s)
Jane Tallim, Co-Executive Director
Julia Ladouceur, Project Manager
Summary
Initiated in 2000 by MediaSmarts, Young Canadians in a Wired World (YCWW) is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging study of children’s and teens’ Internet use in Canada. Phases I and II of this ongoing research project—which tracks and investigates the behaviours, attitudes and opinions of Canadian children and youth with respect to their use of the Internet—were conducted in 2001 and 2005.
With funding from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and the Alberta Teachers' Association, in 2012 MediaSmarts embarked on the quantitative stage of Phase III of YCWW: a nation-wide investigation of a representative sample of Canadian children and youth, ages 9 to 17. The study was conducted in every province and territory and included Public and Roman Catholic and English and French schools in both urban and rural school districts. The sample comprised 5,436 students, and participants were proportionate in terms of age sub-groups, males and females, French and English speakers and stratified by province/territory and community size.
Year One funding (2012-2013) supported the following activities: conducting a literature review of studies on young people’s use of the Internet and mobile technologies; striking an advisory committee; contracting a research firm; drafting the survey instruments (including online and paper versions of the questionnaires for students in Grades 4 to 6 and 7 to 11); completing the University of Ottawa ethics review; conducting outreach and securing ethics approvals from participating school districts and schools; and, implementing the survey in classrooms.
With additional funding from CIRA and the OPC, MediaSmarts concluded the quantitative phase by conducting the following post-survey activities in 2013-2014: coding and analysing the data by Directions research firm; producing a Survey Key Findings report; distributing thank you messages and the preliminary findings to all participating districts, schools, ministries and research institutes; producing six individual key findings reports: Life Online, Online Privacy, Online Publicity, Cyberbullying: Dealing with Meanness, Cruelty and Threats Online, Experts or Amateurs? Gauging Young Canadians’ Digital Literacy Skills; developing an online environment on the MediaSmarts website for YCWW Phase III, including research reports, infographics and slideshows; writing and distributing four press releases, promoting the releases of the reports; writing four blog articles for the MediaSmarts website; writing one article for educational publications; holding a briefing session with funders, key stakeholders and senior government officials in Ottawa; and, presenting the key findings at a major national conference.
This document is available in the following language(s):
English and French
- English (HTML document) (various YCWW reports)
- French (HTML document) (various YCWW reports)
OPC Funded Project
This project received funding support through the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Contributions Program. The opinions expressed in the summary and report(s) are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Summaries have been provided by the project authors. Please note that the projects appear in their language of origin.
Contact Information
950 Gladstone Avenue, Suite 120
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1Y 3E6
Email: info@mediasmarts.ca
Website: http://mediasmarts.ca/
Tel: 1-800-896-3342 (in Canada) or (613) 224-7721
Fax: (613) 761-9024
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