Behind the Screen: The Hidden Life of Youth

Following on from my earlier post on what young people are doing online comes the report, Behind the Screen: The Hidden Life of Youth, according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research. The IPPR worked with young people aged between 13 and 18, holding deliberative workshops and in-depth interviews.
The research found that young people are ‘constantly connected’ staying up to the early hours with many leaving their mobile phones on all night in case they receive a text message. But a lack of parental knowledge and understanding means that few have any idea about what their children are doing online.

“My mum will ask sometimes ‘is it safe?’ but she doesn’t really know”(Girl, 16, ABC1)

“Everyone lies about their age ‘cos I think it’s like if you’re under 18, your profile gets set to private” (Girl, 15)

“We have restrictions at school but we can just get an administrator’s account and take them off” (Boy, 14)

“Restrictions stop you going on bad sites, like games sites and stuff. If you take them off you can go on anything” (Boy, 14).

“I want to spend less time ‘cos what I do on it is just really pointless – like MySpace is just really addictive” (Girl, 17)

“First it was like everyone was on MSN, then everyone sort of has Bebo, now everyone who had MSN moved on to Facebook so it’s just what everyone’s doing at that time” (Girl, 16)

“Some things they [parents] don’t understand and they ask me to explain it to them but they still don’t understand” (Girl, 13)

The report goes on to make several recommendations for Ofcom and for the owners of social networking sites to improve the safety of young people online. Perhaps the most important recommendation to educators is that the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCFS) should be given overall control for media literacy. Information and support for parents should be provided through the extended schools programme and available through initiatives such as Sure Start; so that parents can make sure their children get the best out of the internet without being exposed to unnecessary risks. That applies in England what about Scotland? This engagement with parents is crucial and I am aware of the work Ollie has been doing in East Lothian in this area, something both Louise and myself want to learn from as we hope to roll out something similar in Highland for parents, teachers and pupils.

It will be interesting to read the recommendations of the Byron Review which was set up in September 2007 by the Prime Minister and is due to be published soon. Headed by Dr Tanya Byron the review is examining the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.