Reflect

Parents and school leaders are currently buffeted by an acrimonious debate about smartphones and childhood. There are those advocating for no phone until the age of 16, and use of social media, a lifeline to friends for teens, is bitterly argued over by adults. We hear less about the valid evidence of benefits or risks that these proposed bans might bring.

Parents are told that digital environments create anxious children with little causal evidence and plenty of pushback from researchers, yet 74% of parents worry about their child’s future job prospects if they lack digital skills. In fact, some rely on their child to help with all things digital. Others want to keep in touch with their child via phones for safety. Most parents see their children thrive with technology. 16 years of The Cybersurvey data shows the majority of teens do well in their digital lives, while a minority require focused support. But like many things in life, technology can be beneficial and risky or harmful at the same time!

Like it or not, we are living in a digital age. The new secretary of state Peter Kyle talks of ‘innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science and research across the economy’. But do we have the workers to achieve this? It is estimated that the digital skills gap costs the UK economy £63 billion per year. Around 11.8 million adults in the UK are online but lack essential digital skills for work. And, while 54% of young people want to learn more about AI, 95% of teachers surveyed by Barnardos had not received any training around the topic.

There are big questions for parenting and education, and the debate both pushes parents away from technology and pulls them towards it. A confusing scenario!

Motivate

It began way back in 2008. Through the survey, we follow and pick up trends – which can change faster than a craze on the school playground. We learn about what children and young people encounter online, whether positive or negative. We explore the advice that they receive, how they react when things go wrong and their exposure to harm.

We’ve found that too many teens feel that the online safety lessons they receive at school are totally out of date or ‘do not connect with my life’. Only by attuning to the experiences and opinions of young people themselves can an adequate response to the issues raised by digital technology be developed. Schools who take part in the survey can use this information to explore issues with their young people and to devise online safety sessions that are up to date and meet current needs.

In the aftermath of Covid, against a backdrop of war, climate change and inflation, our young people are finding comfort, connection and ways to calm their feelings and worries online. This is where their friends are and life is conducted. Educators face an enormous challenge to prepare young people for a digital future which can barely be imagined as the pace of change is so rapid. The Cybersurvey is a tool to help give a snapshot of what they experience. So what does it show?

Well, it helps us to recognise and acknowledge when technology is positive. Teens go online to relax and have fun. More than two thirds of respondents describe digital tech as their “main entertainment”. It’s encouraging to note too that the majority of teens are fairly resilient. In fact, 84% say that they hardly ever or never feel depressed after time online. 87% say that what they like about going online is that it helps them to “calm down” emotionally, and 91% enjoy the autonomy it offers: “I can look up anything”.

In our latest sample, more than three quarters of teens use accessibility tools in some way to assist them. The vast majority talk about how being online allows them to be creative (86%), learn new things (96%), and form stronger social bonds (81% say that social media helps them to “feel closer to friends”). As many as 93% say that “it helps me to relax”.  Over half go online as part of their suite of coping tools, “to escape my issues”. For 87%, time online also banishes boredom “which can let in worry or sadness”.

The survey also helps us to identify those for whom the impacts are less positive and put into place support mechanisms to help. 28% of respondents say that they struggle to manage their life online in the face of persuasive design, exciting content popping up, and pull factors designed into apps, games and streams. 12% say they need help to control their online life.

Interestingly, 14% of respondents are not allowed to do much online. Work we have done with vulnerable teens has shown that overly restrictive practices by parents or carers, however well meaning, can actually encourage teenagers to find ways to get around restrictions and become more secretive. It can also make it harder for them to turn to adults for help if and when it is needed.

It's not only about online life, but about a sense of belonging. The importance of feeling supported at home and at school, as well as socially among friends, should not be underestimated. It seems that offline factors influence online life – the two are intertwined. Young people who are worried about life at home, who are care-experienced,  or who are socially excluded by peers tend to be among the vulnerable groups who are more at risk online. These groups include teens with special educational needs, eating disorders and other challenges such as speech and hearing difficulties or a longstanding illness. Sadly, only a third of girls say that school is a place where they feel that they belong, in contrast to more than 50% of boys.

The survey finds that resilience involves not only the individual’s personal characteristics, but a network of support from friends, parents or family members and trusted adults at school. As parents, loved ones and educators, we should strive to stay close to our children, as warmth and dialogue are mitigating factors in the face of adverse experiences, both online and off, whilst endless arguments about the blunt concept of ‘screen time’ or other aspects of online life can create friction.

Support

Firstly, integrate online safety into all aspects of school life. Online safety shouldn’t be addressed sporadically as an isolated subject, wheeled out for online safety weeks, but integrated into the curriculum and considered dynamically and immersively. Secondly, schools should think about the whole child when supporting them to be safer online. This should include their maturity, wellbeing, any vulnerabilities and prior trauma. Thirdly, schools have a role to play in calming panics and diffusing sensationalist headlines. Balanced evidence-based advice can help. Finally, all settings could benefit from evaluating whether online safety content for teens is modern and relevant. Teens want media literacy education to be interactive, up to date and inclusive. Don’t show the same old video year after year!

It is not all down to schools or parents though. Platforms must incorporate safety by design, and legislation must evolve faster to protect children. There are notable changes afoot, but it is too early for judgement.

You may be aware that it’s currently Anti-Bullying Week. It’s a perfect moment to explore not only cyberbullying experiences, but also the general cyberhate that we know young people frequently see online. Over the last two years, whilst there has been a decline in reports of cyberbullying, there has been a sharp rise in misogyny and racism in online spaces, and teens report seeing more of this type of aggressive content. Why not talk to young people about whether they recognise this change and how they feel about it, before turning the conversation to values. Do they agree with what the survey found? What are their concerns? Are there local trends? What values would they like to see in a society? Have they ever seen anything online that shocked or worried them? What did they do? How could they help a friend or sibling?

The gendered online experiences of many teens are ripe topics for energetic debate both in schools and at home. We’ve found, for example, that whilst boys take advantage of what technology offers and use it to find out about things and for homework in confident ways, girls are more sceptical and doubtful about the information they see online, and feel less able to recognise unacceptable behaviour. Too many have been made to feel fearful instead of confident, and boys are 15% more likely than girls to say, “If I see something upsetting I can recover”.

Above all, it is an ongoing partnership and supportive, curious conversations between adults and young people that are most likely to deliver a safer and digitally skilled generation.

The Cybersurvey is a partnership between Adrienne Katz and Dr Aiman El Asam, Associate Professor of Psychology at Kingston University , London. It is open to all schools. Please visit www.thecybersurvey.co.uk or sign up here.