What young people in care told us about the internet and how they use it

Guardian Saints work with organisations and individuals responsible for safeguarding young people in care. We help them build robust policy and practices for data protection and online safety.

As part of the work we did to support Safer Internet Day this year, we collected information about how young people in care used the internet, what they liked and disliked and what worried them about using it. This report presents a summary of what they told us.

Context

Young people in care are widely considered the most vulnerable in our society today. These young people are taken into care, not because they have done anything wrong, rather that they have been harmed or are at risk of being harmed. Based on the most recently available statistics, there were just over 80,000 (stats ref:) young people in care, 65%  (stats ref:) of whom were taken into care because they had suffered abuse or neglect. In fact, 99% (stats ref:) of all young people are taken into care for reasons over which they had no control.

Young people in general, but specifically those in care, rely on adults to keep them safe, both ‘offline’ and ‘online’ – so may assume that is being done on the technology and applications to which they have access. Some adults may deny access to all, out of fear, lack of knowledge and the simple desire to ensure that the risk of harm is greatly reduced. However, this may then deny young people the opportunity to learn and gain knowledge.

They need to be able to discuss the issues and build resilience to ensure they have a positive and inclusive digital experience. Young people need to know how to keep themselves safe - also what to do and who to speak to if they are concerned about something they have experienced Online. We spend much of our time training adults how to keep young people safe, comments given as part of our survey response indicate they want to be safe – so let’s teach them. The implementation of the DofE non statutory guidance ‘Teaching Online Safety in School’, which signposts the framework set out by the UK Council for Internet Safety in ‘Education for a Connected World’ is a positive step. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ‘Childrens Code’ - with privacy settings being set to ‘high’ is significant. The adoption of General Comment 25 and the implementation of the Online Harms Bill move us further toward ensuring young people are kept safe Online.

For young people, knowing where to go when things go wrong and making sure that negative influences on the internet do not have negative impacts on their offline lives is vital.

So what did we learn from the young people who answered our questions?

Guardian Saint is a not for profit organisation.

Our Mission is to better equip foster carers, parents and social care professionals with the tools, skills and knowledge to support children and young people to enjoy a positive online experience in our ever-evolving digital world.

Please see the services we offer to help and support those who care for and protect young people in care.