Report: online harms experienced by children and young people

The research has revealed that 97 per cent of Catch22’s child sexual exploitation referrals have an online or social media element – with substantial increases related to online grooming and abuse.

Consultation with young people has also shown that more than 70 per cent of young people had seen content during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 that was either violent or explicit. This includes videos of suicide, nudity and extreme violence. They have also described social media as ‘toxic’ and found it led to a negative impact on a young person’s mental health and wellbeing. 

Additionally, young people cited unwanted contact online from adults, companies and bots, while there were also complaints of cyberbullying, threats and sharing of explicit content.

However, only 40 per cent of young people interviewed reported online harms because they didn’t know how to, they had previously been ignored or previous negative experiences. Several people also cited receiving responses a long time after a complaint, which caused them to relive the event or incident.

Further findings include:

• young people want to see better training for professionals and guardians in relation to online behaviour
• young people felt responsible to report content, but also felt the ‘damage’ had already been done
• children and young people want to see improved monitoring, swift action and accountability from tech organisations, rather than the responsibility being placed on the user
• police are ‘one step behind’ developments in technology and so need to develop stronger relationships with tech companies
• as well as harms, young people highlighted significant benefits to their online world – in their education, their social lives and in their identity.

The data provides much-needed context on the wide-reaching implications of the pandemic and the need for services and training for professionals, parents and guardians during this time. 

The report sets out seven key recommendations. These are presented under the 7R’s, with examples of young people’s calls for action including:

• research - resources need to be dedicated to independent research that is fully participatory and includes transparent input from tech companies
• rights – children’s rights in the digital space, considering their right to learn, to play, and to be informed, are too often missing from online safety discussions
• regulation – legislation in relation to social media platforms is needed but it is one aspect in an array of required measures, including education, the need to address social inequalities, the need for transparency by companies and partnership work
• responsibilities – children and young people placed a lot of emphasis on the responsibilities of companies and felt that they should be held accountable for inaction
• representation – children and young people want to be part of panels that tech companies, platforms, and gaming designers consult with when designing, developing and updating new products
• responses - children and young people and their advocates want to see quick, appropriate, effective, and proportionate responses to online harms. They want swifter processing and better updates from law enforcement when phones are seized
• resources - more resources are needed for those working in education and safeguarding and reforms to school education are needed to better reflect the online environment. 

Through the report, London’s VRU, Catch22 and Redthread, are lobbying for these recommendations and young people’s opinions to be at the centre of policy reforms in the Online Safety Bill, a draft of which is due to be debated upon in parliament on 10 December 2021.

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