Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This project forwards insights about the importance of being in ‘the room where it happens’ – creating tactility and togetherness in the research encounter – for research with children and young people in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Created in response to the intense uptake of digital methods catalysed by COVID-19, this project productively re-imagines moments from our creative visual research with children and young people from before the COVID-19 pandemic. This re-imagining began early in 2020 and has continued to evolve, incorporating our shifting perspectives and ‘thinking with’ the scholarship of leading creative methodologists.

Good quality friendships and relationships are critical to the development of social competence and are associated with quality of life and mental health in childhood and adolescence. Through social distancing and isolation restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the way in which youth socialize and communicate with friends, peers, teachers and family on a daily basis. In order to understand children's social functioning during the pandemic, it is essential to gather information on their experiences and perceptions concerning the social changes unique to this period. The objective of this study was to document children and adolescents' perspectives regarding their social life and friendships during the COVID-19 pandemic, through qualitative interviews. Participants (N = 67, 5–14 years) were recruited in May and June 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted via a videoconferencing platform. A thematic qualitative analysis was conducted based on the transcribed and coded interviews (NVivo).

Children and adolescents who experience a prolonged state of physical isolation during COVID-19 may look for alternative, attractive or unconventional forms of socialization, available in the web world. This may expose them to the risks of unsupervised cyberspace exploration beyond the open web, which may lead them to areas that are usually not available to visitors. They may pass the gates of the “open” and “deep web” sections and enter into the dangerous “dark web” zones, which predominantly host unethical and criminal activities. In those shadowy corners of the worldwide web, there exist dangers ranging from identity theft and drug trade to suicide chat-rooms and child pornography. This commentary, authored by EPA-UNEPSA members of the working group on social pediatrics, briefly discusses the features of the dark web and its implications for children and adolescents. The aim is to raise awareness of pediatricians and families on the growing risk of child exploitation through the web, at a time when vulnerable young people face home lockdowns with potential abusers intruding on their privacy.