Two-thirds of children aged 9 to 16 report having had harmful experiences online
Parents are increasingly worried that too much time spent online is damaging their children's physical health and sleep.
Two-thirds of children, meanwhile, report having had harmful experiences online.
The third annual Internet Matters survey concludes that children's ‘digital wellbeing’ is improving thanks in part to ‘more engaged parenting’.
However, it also warns that ‘many children are still dealing with the negative aspects of online life’ including seeing extreme and hateful content and being contacted by strangers.
The report is based on survey data from more than 1 000 UK children and young people aged 9 to 16 and their parents.
Children and young people in the survey report that the time they spend online helps them to feel confident and independent and part of wider groups as well as helping them to learn and discover careers and new interests.
There is also evidence of ‘more engaged’ parenting, including more oversight of children and young people's online activity and more parent-child dialogue about online risks.
As such, the report's digital wellbeing index, which considers how children feel about their physical, social, emotional and developmental online experiences, shows that more children and parents are reporting more positive experiences.
The report states: ‘Quite simply, children are experiencing more of the benefits from their online activities – whether this is feeling more connected, more creative, or more empowered.’
However, this does not negate the fact that a worrying 67% of the children and young people in the research have experienced some form of harm from being online. These harms include:
- Contact from strangers.
- Seeing violent content.
- Receiving abusive messages or comments.
- The promotion of unhealthy body image.
- Seeing sexual content.
- Seeing content about self-harm.
- Fake information.
Girls are significantly more likely to experience many of the harms of being online. Nearly half of 15 to 16-year-old girls say that strangers have tried to message or contact them, this is up from 3 in 10 in 2022.
Meanwhile, 13 to 14-year-old girls are more likely to say that being online makes them feel lonely and isolated. Overall, the survey reports rising incidence of stranger contact, particular for older girls.
In her foreword to the report, Internet Matters joint-CEO Carolyn Bunting voices her fears about online harms becoming normalised.
She writes: ‘I am concerned that to younger generations who have grown up with technology, experiencing harm online is becoming normalised: increasingly seen as an inevitability of online life, rather than something which can, and must, be tackled.
‘We, the adults supporting and shaping children's online experiences, must remain ambitious and determined that things can be better.’
Elsewhere, 63% of parents in the survey said they are worried that the strain of too much screen time is affecting family life and the physical health of their children; 57% are concerned about the impact on their children's sleep.
Almost a quarter of children in the survey also say they are experiencing negative physical effects from their online activities, including fatigue, concentration difficulties, vision problems, and poor posture.
Around a third of the parents said they often found them and their children spending time on their own devices ‘rather than doing things together’.
- The report, Children's wellbeing in a digital world, can be found via www.internetmatters.org/hub/research/childrens-wellbeing-in-a-digital-world-index-report-2024
One in five pupils still persistently absent from school, rising to one in three for FSM children
We need ‘more boots on the ground’ knocking on doors if we are to bring down continuing high levels of persistent absence.
Official figures for the autumn term (DfE, 2024) show that persistent absence has improved year-on-year, but is still running at 20.1%.
However, while at primary level persistent absence is running at 16.1%, at secondary level it is 24.6% – meaning that a quarter of students missed 10% or more of their school sessions during the autumn term.
The figures are even worse for students on free schools meals (FSMs) with one third (33%) being persistently absent during the autumn term.
Overall, attendance levels from September to December hit 93.2%; 94.7% at primary level but dropping to 91.6% for secondary schools and 89.6% for students on FSMs.
Persistent absence has been an ongoing challenge for schools, especially at secondary level, since the pandemic. The government has announced a number of initiatives to try and tackle the problem, including expanding both its Attendance Hubs and its mentoring programme.
Attendance Hubs provide tailored support to pupils and their families to help reduce absence from school. They are run by schools with excellent track records in boosting attendance. The Department for Education (DfE) has unveiled plans to expand the number of hubs in operation to 32. The hubs use a range of tactics to engage with pupils and their families, including breakfast clubs and extracurricular activities, as well as undertaking analysis of attendance data to identify trends and solutions.
Meanwhile, the DfE's mentoring programme has been given £15m over three years to offer ‘intensive support’ to more than 10 000 persistent or severely absent pupils. Up until now it has been operating in Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Knowsley, Salford, and Stoke on Trent. The project will expand to cover a further 10 areas from September 2024.
However, in an article earlier this term, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and Colege Leaders, while welcoming these initiatives, said that investment in professionals ‘knocking on doors’ is what was required (Barton, 2024).
Mr Barton writes: ‘The most effective solution to poor attendance is to have attendance officers knocking on doors and talking directly to families about why children are missing school, what barriers there are to attendance and how these can be solved.
‘That is a service which is traditionally provided by local authorities. However, that service has been decimated over the past decade or so as a result of government cuts to local authority funding.’
Mr Barton acknowledges that this is an expensive solution, but compares this expense to the long-term ‘damage caused by persistent absence’
He adds: ‘The actual question for policy-makers is whether they have the political will to do the obvious thing.’
Responding to the latest figures, Paul Whiteman from the National Association of Head Teachers echoed the call for more people to be employed to work with families. He said: ‘The figures underline the need for the government to invest far more in tackling persistent absence and the reasons for it, which may include everything from issues at home, to poverty, mental ill-health and a failure to fund adequate support for many children with SEN.
‘Schools alone do not have the time, resources or expertise to address what are sometimes deep-rooted social issues, yet vital services like children's social care and mental health support have suffered cuts or failed to keep up with demand.’
He added: ‘We need to see more boots on the ground, with visits to families to get to the bottom of issues with children's attendance.’
- Barton: School absence: Nothing beats knocking on doors SecEd, 2024: www.seced.co.uk/content/blogs/school-absence-nothing-beats-knocking-on-doors
- DfE: Week 2: Pupil attendance in schools, 2024: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupilattendance-in-schools/2024-week-2
Alternative provision: Damning report must be ‘precursor to change’
A damning report into the ‘negative’ experiences of many students in alternative provision must be a ‘precursor to change’, school leaders have said.
An Ofsted investigation has revealed that too many students' experiences of alternative provision are negative, due in no small part to a lack of clarity over who is responsible for the commissioning and oversight of places.
Ofsted's report draws upon visits to six local areas and survey responses from 700 people working and learning within England's alternative provision system, including students and their families.
It highlights examples of good practice and stresses that good registered alternative provision can provide a high-quality education to vulnerable young people. However, it warns that too many children's experiences are negative.
Alternative provision is commissioned by schools or local authorities when students are excluded or cannot attend mainstream school for reasons such as complex medical, social or emotional needs.
However, not all alternative provision needs to be registered or inspected – meaning there is ‘lack of oversight’.
Ofsted says that a ‘lack of national standards and clarity’ around who is responsible for commissioning alternative provision and its oversight means that outcomes for young people are ‘inconsistent’. It says that the system is in ‘desperate need of reform’.
The report states: ‘Decisions about placing children in alternative provision are often not rigorous enough and placements are not monitored effectively. As a result, children's outcomes are extremely inconsistent, both across and within local areas.’
This results in a ‘disrupted education’ for many young people, with one parent quoted in the report describing the situation as ‘soul-destroying’. A child in the report spoke about feeling ‘abandoned’ by their home school.
Inspectors also report a lack of collaboration between agencies, especially when it comes to health partners often not being involved in decision-making about individual placements.
The report is calling for better guidance about the purpose of alternative provision and ‘potential indicators of success’, and clearer roles and responsibilities for different local area partners, including more clarity on ‘how health and social care partners should be involved in strategic planning for alternative provision and the commissioning and oversight of individual placements’.
Ofsted also wants to see a ‘proportionate registration and inspection regime for all alternative provision’.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: ‘Good alternative provision provides invaluable support for children and helps them engage with their learning. However, we are concerned that some children's education and care falls below the standard they deserve. We need more clarity about how alternative provision can be used effectively so that children have consistently positive experiences.
‘We also remain concerned about the widespread problems with unregistered alternative provision – after 12 years of calling for the mandatory registration for all alternative provision, it is clear that the need for reform is more urgent than ever.’
The Association of School and College Leaders said that the report should bring about significant reform. Its SEND and inclusion specialist Margaret Mulholland explained: ‘While many providers are offering high-quality alternative provision and achieving improved outcomes for children and young people, there are vast differences in how alternative provision is being delivered across different local areas.
‘Ofsted's conclusion that decisions about placing children and young people in alternative provision are not always considered thoroughly enough, needs to be a precursor to change. The current system too often leads to children being inappropriately placed in alternative provision because there is insufficient resource or capacity for them to remain in mainstream settings.’
The government's SEND and AP Improvement Plan, published last year, sets out plans to integrate alternative provision within the SEND system.
Ms Mulholland added: ‘Integrating alternative provision within the SEND system provides an opportunity to develop the specialist support available in alternative provision settings. However, this must be flexible enough to respond to regional needs and significant investment is required for training and development to ensure all alternative provision has a positive impact on children and young people.’.
- Ofsted: Research and analysis: Alternative provision in local areas in England: a thematic review, February 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/alternative-provision-in-local-areas-in-england-a-thematic-review