Monday December 4, 2006
Young people highlight risks associated with rise of social networking
UK’s dedicated centre for tackling child sex abuse publishes initial findings on growing online trend
Social Networking sites are rapidly becoming central to the way young people forge relationships but in doing so have triggered significant public concern for child welfare, reveals a new Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre report.
With the growing popularity of this phenomenon, the CEOP Centre has witnessed an increase in public concern for the safety of children and young people using these services. As the first step in addressing this, the CEOP Centre held a series of seminars attended by parents, young people, teachers, police officers, social workers, industry representatives and other key stakeholders. The aim was to find out more about their experiences of these sites and identify any issues or concerns they may have regarding personal security in the online environment.
Young people aged between 10 and 16 were among the 300 seminar attendees who told the (CEOP) Centre what they thought about online social networking sites. The outcomes and key recommendations are detailed in the report, ‘Understanding Online Social Network Services and Risks to Youth’, published today.
Some key findings from the seminars are as follows:
- Groups of young people reported that the sites are good for meeting new people and encouraging self expression. They also reported the sites as user friendly, entertaining and economical, (services that primarily attract children and young people are free)
- Groups of young people said they are unsure about the security of information they post, that often they feel pressurised into uploading information by other users, that they sometimes feel exposed to unwanted contact (e.g. from advertisers and unfamiliar users) and find it difficult to establish trusting relationships online
- Adult focus groups reported that they are largely unaware of the services these sites offer children and young people, the extent of their use, and the risk of harm they may pose to this group
- Similarly adults find the sites beneficial in encouraging self expression among young people, although they are concerned about how much personal information they may post when interacting in this environment
In looking to implement recommendations influenced by these findings the CEOP Centre will continue to work alongside the Home Office, Law Enforcement, Child Protection Agencies and Industry to maximise, wherever possible, child protection opportunities within the social networking arena. In particular, CEOP will use findings from the seminars to contribute to the work of the Home Secretary’s Task Force for Child Protection on the Internet. The Taskforce is looking to produce guidelines for social network providers in the near future.
Alex Nagle, Head of Harm Reduction for the CEOP Centre and lead for the organisation’s research into social networking takes up the issue:
We are witnessing growing concerns – primarily from teachers and head teachers - about social networking sites. We have also seen instances where access to such sites has been banned by a number of schools within the UK. One of the main fears behind these decisions is the way the sites can be used by sexual predators to gain access to children.
The CEOP Centre had to take action, but as our report shows adults do not have all the answers. As natives of these areas, we wanted to ensure children and young people played a key role, not only in the production of these findings but also in our drive to make technological advances safer by design.
In essence the seminars provided a chance to build an evidenced knowledge base that can be used to inform the CEOP Centre’s activities, whether it’s working directly with service providers, further research or the development of our education programme for children. After all, young people don’t want to be the focus of deviant behaviour online. What they are telling us is that they want the freedom to explore these services without the fear of sexual predators. Therefore, banning these services is not the answer.
Margaret Brennan, head of research for the CEOP Centre and author of today’s report added:
Through these seminars young people in particular have made their concerns clear. They have also demonstrated that they use online social networks to express themselves and experiment sexually; to socialise and behave just as they would in real world environments.
Young people were very much aware of the risks their peers face online and this is something we’re keen to build on. We need to explore ways of fostering a sense of ‘Online Social Responsibility’ among these young users. What we’d like to see is further education and awareness raising for this group on the topic of ‘Online Citizenship and Social Responsibility.
We hope that the risks and recommendations contained in this report will enhance a child protection focus in the future development of good practice for social networking services. We want our partners to work with us in safeguarding against these risks and accept that children will use every option available to express themselves both online and offline.
Understanding Online Social Network Services and Risks to Youth (Stakeholder Perspectives) is available free of charge here.
- Understanding Online Social Network Services and Risks to Youth
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A preliminary report on the findings of CEOP's Social Network Seminar Series
Download PDF, 381Kb
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Group responses given in the seminars, as quoted in the report and supporting press release, are not attributable to CEOP. Publishing these findings by no means indicates Centre endorsement for all the points made and should not be interpreted as such.
2. According to the OfCom Communications Market Report 2006, 70% of young people aged between 16 and 24 are using new online social networking sites to make friends, share information and have fun.
3. A recent newspaper report has further suggested that 6 in 10 young people between the ages of 13-17 years have personal profiles on sites run by service providers, including MySpace, BEBO and Lunarstorm. (Goodchild and Owen, Independent on Sunday, August 6, 2006)
4. The CEOP Centre works in both online and offline environments and full information on all areas of work as well as online safety messages and access to online reporting can be found at www.ceop.gov.uk.
5. The CEOP Centre is affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and powers are derived from the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. It is based in Pimlico, London with developing outreach channels to all areas of both domestic and international policing as well as industry and specialist support and educational faculties.