Youth sector asked to take part in online harms survey
Nina Jacobs
Monday, May 11, 2020
Youth workers and children’s service leaders are invited to take part in a national consultation examining links between online behaviour and serious violence.
Launched by social welfare charity Catch22, the initiative aims to gather information from young people and professionals working with young people to understand how violence and exploitation could result from online activity.
The Catch22 Online Harms consultation will also attempt to evaluate to what extent services across the UK are prepared to prevent and address such incidents of serious violence.
With social media a recognised catalyst for youth violence, combined with many people confined to their homes and screens, experts are warning of a potential rise in youth violence once lockdown restrictions are eased, the charity said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, data from the Office for National Statistics showed there were 47,500 knife offences in 2019, an 82 per cent increase on 2014, it added.
Chris Wright, the charity’s chief executive officer, said its frontline practitioners were acutely aware of the risk to young people being confined at home without the same level of supervisions they would usually face from parents, carers or teachers.
To counteract this risk, he said youth services adapting to remote delivery methods or technology platforms upscaling their reach needed to ensure online safety was a priority.
“We know young people’s online activity is largely unsupervised - and, we know through our services which address youth violence and child exploitation, and through our schools, that serious harm is occurring.
“But before we jump in with more solutions, we want to know what is already being done.
“We want to know what is working and what isn’t, what programmes exist, and where there are gaps,” he said.
Wright said he welcomed submissions from internet users aged 16 to 23, professionals working with young people, commissioners or developers or services for young people as well as digital organisations developing products used by young people.
The consultation runs until 25 May.
