“I’ve seen horrible things”: Children’s experiences of the online world

By The Children's Commission for England...

“I think the Government should do more about protecting children on the internet. Of course, it is very hard but just educating about the dangers of the internet is not enough” – Girl, 17. A year has passed since the Online Safety Act 2023 became law. This Act, a landmark piece of legislation, was welcomed by the Children’s Commissioner, following her extensive campaigning, as an important step towards a new era of the online world: one that presented an opportunity for children to learn, play and develop there safely. One year on, the legislation has yet to be implemented and important decisions regarding what those regulations will look like remain unclear. This report illustrates the extent to which children are still experiencing harm online. It sets the Children’s Commissioner’s expectations for the future of online safety policy making, and bolder steps towards robustly protecting children online. This report draws on the responses of 253,000 children and adults to The Big Ambition: a large-scale consultation of children in England carried out between September 2023 and January 2024. 2 The survey asked a broad set of questions about their lives, and in response, children shared their views on what they think needs to change to make their lives better. One of the areas they wanted action on was online safety. Children told the Children’s Commissioner’s Office that some children are more vulnerable to online harms than others, and that a variety of content and non-content factors cause them harm online. They also shared their views on who should take responsibility and make the online world safer for them. This report sets out what they said:

London: The Children's Commissioner for England, 2024. 80p.