Internet Safety: Interview with Sonia Livingstone, PhD

By Mary Alvord, PhD, and Fran C. Blumberg, PhD, associate professor, Division of Psychological & Educational Services at Fordham University

This past March, Mary Alvord, PhD, 2013 President of the American Psychological Association (APA) Div. 46, Society for Media Psychology and Technology, and Dr. Fran Blumberg, PhD, associate professor at Fordham University and co-chair of the New Technologies Committee of Div. 46, held an interview with Sonia Livingstone, PhD. Livingstone is professor of social psychology, department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and a leading scholar and researcher in the area of media literacy. She has authored or edited 17 books and numerous academic articles and book chapters.

Livingstone currently directs a 33-country network, EU Kids Online, funded by the European Community's Safer Internet Program. She has recently co-edited a book, Livingstone, S.,Haddon, L., & Görzig, A. (eds.) (2012) "Children, risk and safety on the internet: research and policy challenges in comparative perspective." Policy Press: Bristol, UK, that reviews the results of that work among 25,000 children, aged 9-16, in 25 European countries who were interviewed in-person. Relevant to the interview that follows were Livingstone’s consideration of ways to ensure that children attain the requisite skills to maintain their safety as frequent internet users and ultimately, assume the role of contributors to the digital environment.

Livingstone, S., Kirwil, L., Ponte, C., & Staksrud, E. (2013). In their own words: what bothers children online? with the EU Kids Online Network (PDF, 980KB). EU Kids Online, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, UK.

Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K. & Livingstone, S. (2013). Does the use of social networking sites increase children’s risk of harm? Computers in Human Behavior, 29 (1), 40-50.