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As Children’s Commissioner, children tell me about how their experiences of the online world impact their lives. They want to take advantage of all the positive opportunities that the online world offers them, with the chance to socialise, learn and play in online spaces.

The Big Ambition results revealed children do not see a difference between their online and offline world. While many children spoke about the enriching aspects of being online, far too many spoke about negative experiences, whether that’s through cyberbullying or seeing inappropriate content.

My young Ambassadors have been sharing their views of each of the themes from The Big Ambition, continuing with online safety:

Maximilian

As young people today, we are faced with a mix of online issues ranging from cyberbullying and viral challenges to data protection and privacy violations. Addictive games, apps and platforms raise concerns for our mental health as the tech industry pushes profits over their corporate responsibilities.

Young people find themselves facing these issues because our voices aren’t respected, heard or considered – even though we account for a significant chunk of technology users today.

It often feels like our parents and teachers do not understand social media, among other internet-related things. The key to understanding what is happening online is media literacy. Media literacy is crucial – both for adults, children and young people – to guide online users to understand the tools at our disposal, including online support systems, reporting features, or other user-focused mechanisms.

Many political discussions, media reports and legislative opinions on online safety often exclude the demographic that is most affected by it: children and young people. Young people are entirely capable to helping adults pinpoint issues and even solutions.

Legislation, such as the Online Safety Act, has been crucial in laying the foundation for a safer internet, for tackling illegal and for minimising harmful content. However, we still need to do more to ensure that children are safe. We must be protected from extremist content, scams and predators among other things.

Ben

In today’s age, where technology connects us instantly, ensuring we can navigate the online world safely is crucially important for everyone, especially young people like me. As a 17-year-old, I believe that every child should be able to explore, learn and play online without fear.

The online world offers new opportunities for learning and discovery, but also comes with responsibilities. As young people, we need more than just access; we need the knowledge and support to protect ourselves in this ever-changing online world.

It is essential online safety is a priority – developers should implement robust measures to shield us from harmful content and addictive features in games. But it isn’t just these types of areas where we need protection, we face risks from extreme views, scammers, and harmful trends online. We need more tools than just the normal report and block features.

Online platforms need to be more open about what they do with reported and blocked content, so users know what to do if we get served the same or similar content again.