Fostering and providing for up-to-date, reliable and robust evidence regarding risks and harm online, for children and for adults alike, is a key priority of NACOS. This report aims to provide up-to-date and robust data to inform policy debate around online safety, to identify trends and assist in prioritising issues for attention both now and in the future.
The research consisted of three nationally representative surveys – one of children, one of their parents, and a separate survey of adults. The report presents findings from each of these surveys.
Some key findings included:
- most children are positive about the Internet and say there are good elements for their age. 44% say this is very true and 39% say it is fairly true
- 62% of children and young people, aged 9-17 year, use social media. This rises from a quarter of 9–10-year-olds to nearly 90% of 15–17-year-olds
- 82% of parents or carers say that they would most prefer to receive online safety information from the child’s school with 60% currently receiving information this way