SUMMARY REPORT

Summary

Digitally Empowering Young People is a project led by researchers at the University of Warwick that set out to explore how we can decrease children and young people’s vulnerabilities online.

We were interested in what provisions currently exist to support children and young people’s digital lives and well-being.

We wanted to know what are the current risks and opportunities for children and young people online and what are the strengths and limitations of current online safety education both within the home and at school.

Key Messages

• Within online safety education delivered at home and in school there is an unhelpful focus on the risks and little acknowledgement of the opportunities the internet has to offer.

• Developing and maintaining healthy and positive relationships based on trust and open communication is integral to keeping children and young people safe online.

• Some of the historical approaches and language used within online safety education has enhanced vulnerabilities and reinforced a culture of victim blaming. This further alienates children and young people from potential sources of support.

• There is a need for “educational change”. Experts had different ideas about how online safety education should be delivered but overall many agreed that “online safety” is an unhelpful term that results in children and young people switching off because they do not think it is relevant, particularly because they do not consider there to be a distinction between their online and offline lives.