Schools have been doing great work in recent years to educate their pupils on how to stay safe online. It is essential. The NSPCC: reported an 84% rise in online grooming cases in 4 years while Ofcom said that 36% of children aged 8 to 17 have encountered ‘worrying or nasty’ content online.
However, research published by Edurio and The Key in January this year found that, of the 70,000 pupils in England surveyed for The Pupil Safeguarding Review, 88% of pupils surveyed said they felt safe online in the last 6 months, compared to 78% out of school and 75% in school. In other words, more children reported feeling safe online than in school or out of school.
Given what we know about online risks to young people, including many ‘hidden’ dangers, this finding suggests a disconnect between their perception and reality. It begs the question: do children have a false sense of security online?
Why don't they realise the risks?
There are many possible reasons. It could be that pupils are not fully aware of actual incidents such as hacking or predatory adults impersonating children. Perhaps they haven’t been exposed to the real-world consequences of dangerous challenges that go viral on the apps they routinely use. It’s also worth noting that some of the more negative aspects of being online can be insidious, slowly chipping away at an individual’s perception or their ability to cope over a period of time. These would include seeing fake news or content that advocates suicide, body shaming and eating disorders. It may be that some pupils have encountered harmful material already but have not yet recognised the impact on their wellbeing.
Research from The Pupil Safeguarding Review found that being in contact with children whom they don’t know is a key element in making pupils feel unsafe online. Roblox was cited as the platform where they felt most at risk, followed by Snapchat. Our perception is that “stranger danger”, in the form of adults, often poses the most serious threat to children whereas they feel unsafe online in spaces where adults are not obviously present.