Communication with friends, by country and frequency (10- to 16-year-old children)

This data, taken from the 2026 EU Kids Online comparative study, assesses how often European children (aged 10–16) use the internet to communicate with friends. The data reveals that online communication is no longer an optional recreational activity, but rather the primary means by which European young people maintain peer relationships and social cohesion. On average across the 19 surveyed countries, 78% of young people communicate with friends online daily or almost daily, whereas only 7% report never doing so. This confirms that complete offline peer communication is now an outlier behaviour across Europe. However, the proportion of young people who interact with their peers online daily varies widely, from 93% in Belgium to 61% in Spain, proving that digital youth experiences differ significantly across member states. Northern, Central and Eastern European nations demonstrate the highest levels of daily reliance, with the highest rates being seen in Belgium (93%), Finland (87%), Croatia (86%), Romania (85%) and Austria (84%). In contrast, Southern and Western European nations report lower levels of daily usage alongside higher rates of complete non-use, with the highest rates being seen in Spain (19%), Switzerland (18%), Ireland (17%) and Luxembourg (15%). These findings present policymakers with a 'proportional harm' dilemma: prohibiting social media altogether would cut off the main communication channels for nearly eight out of ten European young people. This would cause immediate social isolation and disruption, particularly in countries where up to 93% of teenagers rely on daily digital contact.