02 December 2021
What Parents and Carers Need to Know About Age-Inappropriate Content
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According to research carried out by the British Board of Film Classification, last year 60% of children had to talk to their parents after viewing something online that had left them feeling uncomfortable, scared or confused. One in seven (13%) teens said that watching content online that they later wish they hadn’t seen is a daily occurrence.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of the content reported by children featured either violence, hate speech or explicit sexual material. Social media often acts as a gateway to this material: trending topics tend to be seen whether they were searched for or not. Our #WakeUpWednesday guide examines this and other sources of inappropriate online content.
Certain online activities drastically increase the chance of a child seeing upsetting content: joining social networks below the recommended age, using age-inappropriate games or apps; watching live streams; and participating in unmoderated chat groups. A 2021 report by Ofcom, however, found that only 30% of parents set up their children’s devices to block inappropriate content.
As our #WakeUpWednesday guide this week explains, though, screening out unsuitable material is only part of the solution – and not a foolproof one, at that. Some material will eventually slip through the net, so trusted adults also need to feel confident of responding effectively if and when a child does stumble across content which is too adult for them to process by themselves.
To download the guide, please click here.