Children's online behaviours in Irish primary and secondary schools

What is the state of the art of research on children’s behaviours with respect to the Internet in Ireland? What do children know and feel when going online? Does their online behaviour change over the years, for instance in the transition from primary to secondary schools? In Ireland, as well as all in other countries around the world, there has been an increasing interest in investigating children’s online behaviours, specifically children’s habits, interests, opinions and emotions with respect to the Internet. Research studies currently available in Ireland have provided only a snapshot of the situation focusing either on primary or secondary school children, and on a limited period of time (see next paragraph). In the present report, we provide a comprehensive analysis of children’s online behaviours carried out in both primary (from 1st to 6th class) and secondary schools (from 1st to 6th year) all over Ireland during 16 academic months.