Resources tackle online sexual harassment among young people

A study by children’s esafety charity Childnet also reported that nearly a quarter of 13 to 17-year-olds had received unwanted sexual messages and images in the last year. Girls experienced this more often than boys – 31 per cent compared to 11 per cent.

More than half of the 1,559 UK teenagers who took part in the survey said they had witnessed people their age sharing nude or nearly nude images of someone they knew. 

Six per cent said they had been the target of “revenge porn” while 12 per cent said their boyfriend or girlfriend had pressured them into sharing naked images.

Childnet has now published a set of educational resources as part of the Europe-wide Project deSHAME, which tackles online sexual harassment carried out by young people.

Entitled Step Up, Speak Up!, the resources are free and include lesson plans, a teacher toolkit, guidance for schools, films to raise awareness, and a peer-led workshop plan for young people to deliver themselves.

Project deSHAME is a collaboration between Childnet, the University of Central Lancashire and charities in Denmark and Hungary that aims to increase reporting of online sexual harassment among minors and improve multi-sector cooperation in preventing and responding to this behaviour.

The Childnet findings come after a separate study into the impact of mobile devices on UK family life found that children today are spending more time at home but on their mobile phones and tablets rather than with their families (even during meals).

Researchers from the University of Warwick and University of Oxford observed an increase in what they have dubbed “alone-together” time. Using daily diaries compiled by 2,500 children and their parents, they report that in 2015 children and parents spent 379 minutes a day in the same location, of which 136 minutes was “alone-together” time.

Source: SecEd