The relationship with information and media consumption habits of children and young people in Romania
The end of 2024 has shown once again how important it is for Romanian citizens to have the skills to distinguish between facts and opinions, to understand the workings of social media, the techniques of persuasion, to be aware of the persuasive role influencers play in public communication, and to be able to do minimal checks on the information that reaches them. For the younger generation, school is the place to teach them all these things.
In order to be able to develop useful interventions it is important to have a deep and realistic understanding of the needs and behaviors of the beneficiaries. This study provides us with important information on access to technology and the internet, on the specific needs of students, on where there are differences between girls and boys, between urban and rural students, or between school cycles. It also gives us information about the preference for certain types of content, how well students perceive that they know how to check information they are suspicious of, or why they would consider it to be true.
The report reveals the habits of internet and social network use by educational levels (primary, secondary, high school) and the differences between them, as well as the types of activities preferred (socializing, entertainment, information, etc.).
A total of 1,852 students participated in the survey. The sub-sample of pupils in grades III and IV consisted of 552 pupils, the sub-sample of students in middle school consisted of 740 students, and the sub-sample of high school students consisted of 560 students, being nationally representative of the Romanian student population for grades III-IV and V-XII. The sample is also representative by socio-demographic categories (gender, age, region, class, etc.).
The margin of error of the sample is ±1% and has a 95% confidence level. The quantitative data collection period was February 22 – March 26, 2024.
The internet: access and usage habits
95.7% of high school students, 83.5% of middle school students, and 60.1% of 3rd and 4th graders use the internet every day.
High school and middle school use the internet most to communicate with friends, family or other people on social networks. All students consume more social media content than they post content.
ChatGPT is the most popular and most widely used artificial intelligence tool among both high school and middle school students
Social networks: usage habits
The most used online platforms and social networks among high school and middle school students are Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube.
Students distribute online media content created by others to a lesser extent, more on Instagram than on TikTok, and they do this most often through private messages to their friends, especially if they think it is funny or content that may be of interest to them.
Only 2.2% of third and fourth graders say they do not have an account on any social platform or network.Only 29% say they know how to report posts that scare, upset or bother them and 28% know how to set accounts to be private or available only to friends/family.
The majority of students do not post content on TikTok – only two out of ten high school and middle school students say they do so.
Favorite influencers and content creators
Out of the total responses, there are at least 170 unique mentions, showing that there is a very wide diversity of content creators that high school students follow, thus shaping a culture of micro-influencers depending on their areas of interest (music, gaming, modelling, etc.).
Information habits and relationship with the media
The main sources of information for both high school and middle school students, as shown by the analysis of the quantitative data, are discussions with friends and family/adults around them.
For high school students, following discussions with friends or family, podcasts (25.9%) and influences covering the news of the day or week (19.6%) are the most frequently used sources of information, watched daily for two hours or more.
The least used sources of information for students are:
-print media (newspapers and magazines) – eight out of 10 high school and middle school students do not use this source at all;
-radio – almost seven out of 10 high school and middle school students do not use this source at all;
-online newspapers – over six out of 10 high school students and eight out of 10 middle school students do not use this source at all
Information chaos: How do students deal with false information?
High school students say they most often encounter false information online about the lives of celebrities/influencers (17%), humanitarian crises (15%), or politics (15%). In contrast, middle school students do not seem to necessarily identify general areas or topics about which false information is circulating.
The top three criteria according to which high school students decide if a piece of information is true are: the fact that the information confirms what they already knew about the subject (58.9%); the fact that the information appears in several sources (56.6%); the fact that they can identify the source or author of the information (47%).
Five out of 10 high school students take no action when they spot false information and almost three out of 10 say they report a post containing false information. Focus group discussions show that students are more likely to report false information to friends, family or relatives than to post publicly about it on social networks.
Author:
Bianca Rus, Project Manager and media education expert,
Center for Independent Journalism
Mihaela Negru, Researcher
Editor:
Cristina Lupu, Executive Director, Center for Independent Journalism
Data collection and initial data analysis: Cult Market Research
Data visualization and design: Edit Gyenge
© 2025 Center for Independent Journalism
This study is produced by the Center for Independent Journalism with the financial support of Fondation Botnar through the project “Digital Literacy Transformation for Romanian Youth”. The study is also co-financed by the European Union through the BROD project (Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media), under contract number: 101083730 – BROD. The material reflects solely the views of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The project “Digital Literacy Transformation for Romanian Youth”, funded by Fondation Botnar, is coordinated by the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and implemented in partnership with Ashoka Romania, E-Civis, EDUMI, Funky Citizens and PONT Group. More information about the CIJ can be found at www.cji.ro.
About CIJ
The Center for Independent Journalism is a non-governmental organisation active for more than 29 years in protecting democracy and those who believe in its values. The CIJ is committed to freedom of expression and education. Over 15,000 media professionals, 10,000 teachers and 240,000 students have benefited from CIJ’s training courses and work experience.
About Fondation Botnar
Fondation Botnar is a philanthropic foundation dedicated to the wellbeing of young people who live, learn, work, connect and play in urban and digital spaces around the world.
Enabling the meaningful participation of young people, the foundation invests in and supports innovative initiatives and research, bringing together actors from across sectors to create purposeful dialogue and partnerships: www. www.fondationbotnar.org/
