Online Safety: A Pupil's Perspective

For the children of the 21st century, digital consumption is the norm, millions use social media, watch content online and play video games as part of a healthy balanced pastime. Through games, young people can find all sorts of ways to have fun, explore worlds, build, understand difficult subjects, and be with friends socially from the comfort of their homes.​

But there is growing anxiety about the safety and wellbeing of young people, at home as well as at school. Educating parents, carers, educators and young people remains an ongoing challenge in a fast-moving digital culture. The games industry works hard to ensure they are not vulnerable to the dangers that can come with spending time online. But a more pressing question is how much parents, carers, educators and children know about keeping and playing safely online.​ ​

This pioneering report explores the perceptions of over 2,000 children aged 9-18, gaining a valuable insight into how they interact in digital worlds and the extent to which their parents or carers are involved. Digital Schoolhouse is an excellent programme teaching inspiring creative computational skills necessary for a 21st century, but it also understands that people need to know how to navigate responsibly and safely, armed with the right information and knowledge of how to be responsible. This report has great potential to help us all understand what part education plays for a healthy responsible skilled up present and future.