Online Content: Experiences of Children Encountering Online Content Promoting Eating Disorders, Self-Harm and Suicide.
The Task
According to research published by Ofcom in 2023, almost all (97%) children aged 3-17 years old went online in 2022. Furthermore, the research found that 93% of 12–15 year olds and 97% of 16–17 year olds use social media apps or sites. While there are multiple benefits of internet usage, the online space can carry a significant risk of adverse physical or psychological harm. Ofcom’s Online Experience Tracker (OET) found that, when prompted, 10% of 13-17 year olds said that they had come across online content promoting self-harm or suicide in the last four weeks – notably higher than the average of 4% for all age groups combined (13+). It also found that, when prompted, 14% of 13-17 years olds said that they had seen ‘content relating to eating disorders’ in the same time period – again notably higher than the average for all age groups combined (9%).
Ofcom commissioned Ipsos UK in partnership with TONIC to conduct qualitative research to understand the pathways through which children encounter online content that promotes suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. There is currently limited understanding of how children encounter this type of harmful content online. This research sought to build on the current evidence base by further exploring online content that professionals, children and young people perceive to promote suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, perceptions of how harmful this content can be and the impact it has on children. Pathways to encountering this content and perceptions of mitigations to prevent children from encountering this content were also explored.
TONIC’s Approach
The research comprised a scoping phase and mainstage interviews. The scoping phase consisted of a series of co-design workshops that engaged with 15 young people (13-18 years old) to inform the design of recruitment and research materials, and professional consultations to inform the ethical and safeguarding procedures, sampling and recruitment and developing trauma-informed fieldwork processes.
For the mainstage research, young people were recruited by reaching out to existing contacts the team have with national charities, schools and other professional services working with young people. This included working with a number of regional Youth Councils, secondary schools and further education colleges. Recruitment of young people was also supported by the Children’s Society.
Interviews were also conducted with a range of professionals with a safeguarding responsibility as part of their role and with first-hand experience of working with children and young people who have encountered suicide, self-harm, or eating disorder content online.
Outcome
The mainstage fieldwork involved three strands, which are broken down below:
Depth interviews with 10 professionals working directly with young people aged 13-18 years old in a safeguarding capacity. These professionals took part in a 1-hour, one-to-one Microsoft Teams or phone interview with an Ipsos researcher which explored their perceptions of young people’s experiences of encountering harmful content online.
Depth interviews with 17 young people aged 13-18 who had encountered online content which they considered promoted suicide, self-harm or eating disorders (the core sample).
Depth interviews with 14 young people aged 13-21 with lived experience of eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression who had encountered online content which they considered promoted suicide, self-harm or eating disorders (the ‘Lived experience’ sample).
Based on these interviews, TONIC and Ipsos UK produced a comprehensive report which details the findings that reflected the perceptions of children, young people and professionals. These findings were split into four areas, which are summarised below:
Content felt to be promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.
Young people in our sample reported a strong familiarity with content promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.
Content tended to be in the format of short-form media.
Young people had mixed views on what they considered to be ‘recovery’ content.
Young people in our sample described a ‘grey area’ among suicide, self-harm and eating disorder content.
Pathways to encountering harmful content.
Harmful online content can be encountered both purposefully and unintentionally.
Young people in our sample perceived their recommended content to be impacted by a variety of factors, including ones they felt they had little or no control over.
Impact of encountering harmful content.
It was common to hear about negative emotional impacts because of encountering harmful content.
The high frequency of exposure to harmful content encountered online was considered to contribute to desensitisation of the gravity of suicide, self-harm and eating disorder behaviours.
Across groups, raising awareness of issues related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, was seen to have some positive impacts.
Safety measures to prevent exposure to harmful content.
Existing safety features were felt to be ineffective.
Young people raised the concept of trigger warnings and sensitive content markers, and were generally positive about them but in practice, they felt these were not always effective.
There seemed to be differences between the core and lived experience groups in terms of how they used block and report functions.
Young people and professionals offered several suggestions to improve the online safety of young people online.
You can read the full report on the Ofcom website here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/eating-disorders-self-harm-and-suicide/