Survey messages

Young lives online

Teens say 'Worries affect my life' and  'I can't make my worries go away.' More than half say they're afraid bad things might happen. In their reports of online life, we note a marked rise in teens who are seeing content about self-harm or suicide. Misogyny and misandry are reported this year and teens talk about misinformation, racism, violence and nudes.

Locked Down & Online.

Teenagers' wellbeing & online lives in the COVID winter lockdown 2020/1

As isolation and loneliness hit some teens, others take to the their phones to stay connected to friends. We explore young people's wellbeing and emotional health, and what happened to friendships and access to trusted adults. Also included:  changing trends - as cyberbullying falls and harmful content rises. Read how body image and interest in 'bulking up' emerges  alongside  pro-anorexia content among the harmful online content reported.

Young people's behaviour online is influenced less by online safety rules than about how they feel. It is influenced by emotional needs, pre-existing vulnerabilities and the support they have around them. In this report we hear how the digital environment represents both a refuge and a risk especially to children who need to feel connected because they are  isolated, hurt, or vulnerable.

What can adults do in the face of a lack of

trust and teen’s desire for autonomy? In these messages from young people there are urgent trends we cannot ignore.

1.A lack of trust in adults to help effectively when something goes wrong online, and a feeling that parents often don’t understand online life or are too judgemental. 2. A tendency to say that school online safety lessons are not teaching what is relevant and up to date, or what these young consumers say they need.

3. Another strong thread is autonomy. Educators and parents could recognise and support this by helping those who want to find out how to problem solve and stay safe online for themselves.

This report is an overview of the survey messages on all issues covered by The Cybersurveyin 2019.

What motivates a teen to share nudes? By exploring this question with young people, we can learn how to adjust our safety messages, and change how we support a child or teen. We learn that the majority had shared nudes without incident or harm, which makes them sceptical about adults' warnings! The report dispels some myths about sexting and offers hard to hear truths about  those who are struggling already and the likelihood that they will be under greatest pressure to share nudes.  These challenging messages from young people need to be heard and acted upon.



Report


A powerful report which shows how children and young people who are vulnerable offline, are at greater risk online. They see content urging them to be too thin, to self-harm or consider suicide, among a range of risks that include racist content promoting hatred. The study  of 2988 young people shows that vulnerable groups can be at risk in particular ways, with messages for education and support. Risk types are related, making it more likely that a young person who encounters them, will also be subject to others. This report, written by Adrienne Katz and Aiman El Asam is published in partnership with Internet Matters. for frontline professionals, practitioners and policy makers and those working with parents and carers.


Techshock podcast

A lively chat with Vicki Shotbolt of Parentzone

A 'Wednesday Wisdom' article for Tooled Up Education

explores the situation for parents and educators  as debates rage about smartphone or social media bans without reliable evidence of benefits or risks bans might bring. 
https://lnkd.in/eVm45ZdG

Publications informed by The Cybersurvey

Book Chapter: Young People's Digital Wellbeing: Optimising the Potential and Minimising the Risks.   Cathy Street, Aiman El Asam and Adrienne Katz. In Young People: Socialising and Digitalisation 2021, The Council of Europe and European Union Youth Partnership.

From The  Cybersurvey 

Cyberbullying Briefing issued November 2020

The latest trends in cyberbullying

 

Academic Research
Vulnerable Young People and Their Experience of Online Risk 

Aiman el Asam & Adrienne Katz
Journal of Human- Computer Interaction.

https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2018.1437544


 Children’s services for the digital age: A qualitative study into current procedures and online risks among service users

Aiman El-Asam, Adrienne Katz, Cathy Street, Maria Livanou .

Children and Youth Services Review. (Online Dec 2020 and in print March 2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105872


The Glaring Gap: practitioner experiences of integrating the digital lives of vulnerable young people into practice in England.

Aiman El Asam, Rebecca Lane, Kelli Pearson and Adrienne Katz. Information, Communication and Society

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1991976   

 

Psychological Distress & its Mediating Effect  on Experiences of Online Risk: The case for vulnerable young people.

Aiman El Asam Rebecca Lane and Adrienne Katz. Frontiers in Education. 2022   

https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.772051


Social Isolation and Online Relationship-Risk Encounters among Adolescents with Special Educational Needs. 


These are papers  in a programme of research titled “Vulnerability, Online Lives and Mental Health: Towards a New Practice Model” with financial support from the Nurture Network (eNurture) and UK Research and Innovation (Research Council Grant Ref: ES/S004467/1


Blog 

for LSE: Parenting For A Digital Future

Vulnerable offline and at risk online


Blog

Look at Me; Teen Sexting and Risks


Podcast for SWGfl. We talk about The Cybersurvey and messages from it.

Here


Reports from the Cybersurvey

2023 Fun, Friends, Fears and Fallacies

2023 Real or Fake?

2021Teens, Tech and Wellbeing

2020 Locked Down & Online

2019 A series of reports based on this large dataset

2017/18 Cybersurvey  Suffolk

2017/18 Young People With SEN in Mainstream schools

2016/17 Cybersurvey1  Dudley

2016/17 Cybersurvey2   Suffolk

2016 Briefing paper:  Online experiences of young people with SEN compared to peers

2015 Briefing paper: Teens & Sexting

2015 Cybersurvey Suffolk

2015 Cybersurvey Nottinghamshire

2014 Cybersurvey Dudley

2014 Cybersurvey Suffolk


Contact us for earlier reports from 2008 

Birmingham, Solihull, Oxfordshire, Essex, West of England, Nottinghamshire



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