Staying Safe – Online Harms!

Italia

 

Hello!  

Over the next week we have some opportunities for you to stretch your advocacy muscles and tell us your thoughts about staying safe online. Our friends at DCMS (The department of digital culture and media) has carefully put together a white paper on some policy ideas to help keep people safe online, this is called the Online Harms White Paper.   

Who are DCMS? 

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a Government department, working with companies, children’s charities and other Government Departments to ensure that the UK is the safest place in the world to be online. DCMS, together with the Home Office - has launched an Online Harms White Paper. This paper sets out the government’s ideas for how we can help make people safer online.  

 

At The Mix, we are big fans of making sure that the opinions of young people are considered in these things, so over the next week we are going to be asking you some questions which will help feed into the consultation.  

You can read the paper itself here! Fair warning it’s pretty hefty, so DCMS have broken it down for us. There are four main parts, which we will explore over the next week or so.  Every couple of days we will introduce you to another part of the paper and ask a few questions associated to that part. This way you will learn what the paper is all about and get to have your say on each part.  

 

We would love to know your thoughts on the question below. This will help us to know what is important to people your age to make sure those issues are not left out. 

 

What do you think is the biggest issue faced by young people on the internet and why? 

Dancer

I believe that the biggest issues faced by young people on the Internet are bullying, mental health issues and eating disorder triggers. I chose bullying because a lot of people get bullied online as well as face to face or physically. I chose mental health issues because being on the Internet too much can cause anxiety, depression or other issues. I chose eating disorders because certain websites might be Pro Ana (just an example) which can trigger people with eating disorders. 

There is also a lot of abuse and suicides happening due to the Internet. This is because some people use the Internet to groom other people who are more vulnerable and to track them down and verbally, physically or even sexually abuse them. A lot of suicides also happening because people don't know who to talk to about mental health issues, eating disorders, abuse or bullying they are facing so they believe that suicide is the answer.

Italia

Hey @Kasa2103 & @Aidan

Thanks for your ideas, you have both talked about really important topics! @Kasa2103 it sounds like you have a lot of knowledge about things to be cautious of online, which is really encouraging to see! 

@Aidan fake news will be a topic we look at more in-depth later on in the week, so I am looking forward to your contribution. Censorship is a really interesting one as well, not one that has come up to often. Can I ask what you think the impact of government censorship/ surveillance would be on young people? 

HarryT

What do you think is the biggest issue faced by young people on the internet and why?  

For me, I think the biggest problem facing young people online is the pressure that it can create. People often only broadcast the very highs, and looking through social media it can seem as though everyone's life is perfect but yours. This can have big impacts on young people's self-confidence and mental wellbeing.