What did children do online? From social media to internet banking, young people in the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) participated in various types of online activities. Nearly all Danish teenagers reported to have participated in social networks or to have used instant messaging in 2019. Using social media was also the leading internet activity among Swedish respondents in 2018. Regarding the time spent online, Norwegian teenagers between 13 and 17 years old were spending more than four hours online every day in 2018.
Social media was popular among children in Scandinavia in recent years and more than half of the interviewed Swedish ten-year-olds had used social media platforms in 2018. The most popular platform seemed to be Instagram, followed by another photo and video-sharing app: Snapchat. In 2020, the majority of children in Norway reported to have used YouTube.
Despite having many perks, the internet is not always a safe place. One of the main problems with kids and youths being active online users is having negative experiences and being exposed to cyber bullying and cybercrime. Both online and offline bullying seemed to be more common among girls than boys in Norway in 2018. When it comes to social media, Instagram was selected as the platform where the Swedish were the most prone to experiencing hate or threats online over the past few years.
