Western Sydney University has released this report outlining young people’s insights and recommendations about online safety to inform the eSafety Commissioner’s messaging, resources and ongoing engagement with children and young people. The report was developed using youth-centred, participatory co-research and codesign methods. Key concerns raised by young people in the research included privacy issues, security issues and managing online interactions with others.
Mind the gap: Parental awareness of children’s exposure to risks online
This report from the eSafety Commissioner investigates children’s online lives and explores what parents do and don’t know about their experiences. The report outlines a range of negative online content and behaviours encountered by children, including a high proportion of young people aged 14-17 being exposed to sexual content. Almost half of children surveyed were treated ‘in a hurtful or nasty way’ online in the past year while a quarter of children surveyed had engaged in this negative behaviour themselves. Encouragingly, it found that almost all children did something in response to negative online behaviour such as telling their parents.
The House of Representatives Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety has released its report investigating the range of online harms faced by Australians on social media and other online platforms and the impacts of these harms on wellbeing. It makes 26 recommendations.
Young people’s perspectives on online hate, unwanted sexual content, and ‘unrealistic’ body- and appearance-related content: Implications for resilience and digital citizenship
This article, published in MDPI, explores the perspectives of young people in England aged 13 to 21 in relation to online harms and how they respond to harmful content. The study found many ways young people interact with the online world and what this means for resilience-building approaches.
