By Haibo ZHANG, Deputy Director of Guangzhou Children’s Palace, Director of the Children’s Media Literacy Education Research Center of the China National Youth Palace Association.
In order to understand how millennials adopt new media, including the Internet and explore their digital growth and digital literacy, the “Children and Media” research group under Children’s Media Literacy Education Research Center of the China National Youth Palace Association has launched a nationwide research based on a digital-literacy framework that fits the media behavior and growth stage of local kids in urban areas. From September 2014 to September 2015, eighteen Children Palaces from different cities across China have participated in the research, which employed a mixed methodology of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with over 20,000 children aged from 3 to 14 and their parents.
In this research, digital literacy, defined as the development of media literacy in the digital era, refers to the ability to make the most of digital media to develop themselves, the ability to take the initiative to deal with online opportunities and risks, and to become a qualified citizen in the digital age. As a part of the whole research, this article reveals access to new media usage and literacy among children and their parents, as well as an overview of digital literacy education in those new-generation families. This article also seeks to find out the growth path of new media adoption of millennials and pinpoint their key development stages in the digital age. Besides, by examining children’s online risks, the research explores family influence and provides a set of recommendations for public policy-making.
Download the full article here: Digital Literacy and Growth of Children in Urban China in the New Media Age