Internet Filtering Technology and Aversive Online Experiences in Adolescents

Authors: Andrew Przybylski and Victoria Nash

Report: Internet Filtering Technology and Aversive Online Experiences in Adolescents

Published by: The Journal of Pediatrics, March 2017

SUMMARY

Between 2005 and 2015, the amount of time British adolescents aged 12 to 15 spent online increased from eight hours a week to almost 19. This significant rise has fuelled concerns about the negative experiences children may have online, such as bullying or exposure to pornographic material.

Internet filters are widely used in homes, schools and libraries to protect young people from unpleasant online experiences. However, they are costly and can block access to useful material such as content about sexual health and sexual orientation. Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University wanted to find out how effective such filters were when it comes to preventing adverse online experiences.

The team analysed data from 1,030 interviews with 515 UK 12- to 15-year-olds and their parents or carers, gathered as part of a 2015 Ofcom survey. The sample included 258 girls and 257 boys.

One third of parents interviewed - 34 per cent - said they used home network filtering technology, where filters apply to all devices linked to the home broadband service. A quarter - 24 per cent - said they had not heard of the technology. Parents' lack of knowledge about filtering was not associated with children's age, sex, or whether they lived in an urban or rural area.

Young people were asked whether they had experienced any of seven negative online experiences, ranging from "seeing something of a sexual nature that made you feel uncomfortable" to "seeing or receiving something troubling online like a scary video or comment or something that makes you feel scared". Almost one in six young people - 14.4 per cent - reported at least one significant adverse online experience. Eight per cent said they had been contacted by someone online who they did not know and wanted to be their friend while around four per cent said they had encountered another person pretending to be them online. Two per cent had seen something of a sexual nature that made them uncomfortable and three per cent reported seeing or receiving a scary video or comment that made them feel scared.

Girls were more likely to have had an adverse experience online than boys, particularly when it came to receiving unwanted online contact (10.9 per cent compared with 5.3 per cent) and seeing or receiving something troubling or scary (five per cent compared with 1.3 per cent).

Just under one in 10 young people said they were confident they could work around home network filtering or controls that were there to prevent certain content being viewed.

The researchers found the use of internet filtering in the home did not appear to mitigate the risk of young people having unpleasant online experiences, and technical ability to bypass these filters had no observed effect on the likelihood of such experiences.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The researchers say there is a clear presumption by policymakers and professionals that household-level internet filtering is an effective form of online protection but their findings suggest this may not be the case. The report authors suggest the downside of filtering, which includes blocking legitimate searches for information, may impact particularly on vulnerable groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans teenagers. They say young people should be supported to develop the skills and resilience to deal with adverse online experiences, particularly since many access the internet outside the home and school environment through mobile devices. There is also a need for more guidance on keeping young people safe online.

FURTHER READING

Parental Control vs. Teen Self-Regulation: Is There a Middle Ground for Mobile Online Safety?, Pamela Wisniewski and others, CSCW ‘17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Co-operative Work and Social Computing, March 2017. A US survey of mobile apps that promote online safety.

Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring, Monica Anderson, Pew Research Center, January 2016. Research based on a US survey of parents, which finds that the use of technological means to monitor children's internet use is becoming less common.

Basically…Porn is Everywhere: A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the Effects that Access and Exposure to Pornography has on Children and Young People, Miranda Horvath and others, Office of the Children's Commissioner for England, May 2013. A literature review focusing on the impact on children and young people of viewing pornography.