Are Children and Teens

exposed to Harmful
Content online?
By Alice, Jack S, Jake and Roshni
 Introduction:
- 45% of teens say they are online almost constantly.
- Two in three don’t report posts that they believe shouldn’t be
allowed
- 46% of teenagers aged 13-17 who use social media have seen
posts that they believe should not be allowed.
- As a group we feel that teens are exposed to harmful content on
social media
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/science-technology/children-
young-two-using-social-16498429 - video link to show in class
 Our Argument
Children and teens are exposed to explicit content from sexual
pop-up ads on a free game, videos showcasing children’s cartoon
characters in adult situations, or a forum promoting self-harm like
blue whale of momo.
But the question who’s responsibility is it to monitor the content
accessible to children and teens?
 Parents
Many parents don’t know what their kids are looking up.
Parents should educate themselves on parental controls and how to use them
However children and teens are able to override systems easily and search up inappropriate
content away from home eg porn hub.
Parents should be educating their children early on about sex education so as to prevent
intrigue causing children to look online for answers.
BBC News article says that more boys than girls have viewed online pornography through
choice. Due to children being educated through porn this can cause problems in later life as
39% of the 13 to 14 year olds and a fifth of the 11-12 year old’s boys saying they wanted to
copy the behavior they had seen.
 Platforms
Consumers are exposed to graphic images of self harm, terrorist videos and porn.
We suggest that platforms like Instagram create more noise surrounding how the users of
their app can control their privacy and content settings. By giving teens and children the
information on how to control the content they see it will in turn reduce the amount of
accidental innapropriate content people come across.
Instagram can restrict chatting (comments section) inappropriate content (photos and
videos) and privacy and identity theft and social networking. However we feel that this is
not put into practice enough and relies heavily on users reporting sensitive content.
Therefore it is clear that children and teens are exposed to harmful content.
 Government
The internet is regulated by OFCOM. Both OFCOM and the government do put in some
measurements to ensure users safety and well being. They should work with social media
companies to try and stop this happening
The EU is considering a clamp down specifically on terror videos (2019) if they do not
delete extremist content within an hour they will face fines – however this still does not
protect the minds of the youth
In January 2016 in England and wales if a young person is found creating or sharing
images the police can choose to record this as a crime
Fines are the main use of punishment for posting harmful material however we feel that
that more extreme measures should be put in place to ensure there is less harmful
content online
 Conclusion:
Overall we feel that children and teens are being exposed to harmful
content online and that those with the power to monitor and control this,
are not doing enough to sort the problem out – as children are still being
exposed to a range of explicit content including sexting/ revenge porn,
pornography, and extreme content online.
This is leading to a decline in children and teens wellbeing often leading
to mental health issues and in extreme circumstances suicide.