The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has today published a comprehensive new 'Evidence and Insights Pack' on Online Harms Affecting Children.
The Evidence and Insights Pack brings together the latest research, data, and practice examples from across England and Wales to improve our understanding of the risks children face online and how we safeguard them in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
The evidence pack highlights that while online platforms are central to children’s lives, they expose them to severe, overlapping risks:
- Children face a wide range of digital harms, including cyberbullying, sexual abuse, radicalisation, and exploitation.
- Exposure to harmful content and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images have become increasingly normalised among children, disproportionately affecting girls.
- Many children who engage in problematic online behaviours have complex needs or are themselves victims of abuse.
- Inadequate platform design features and a lack of digital literacy among adults significantly increases risk and hinder effective safeguarding.
- Online harms have long-lasting impacts on wellbeing and, for some children, are directly linked to involvement in offline violence.
Access to Evidence and Insights pack here.