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The UK’s communications regulator is calling on young people to help protect each other by reporting harmful content online.
Ofcom says two-thirds of youngsters aged between 13 and 17 see harmful content online but only 16% report it.
As it waits for the government’s Online Safety Bill to go through parliament, it has called on young people to help tackle online harms themselves.
At Soap Box Youth Centre in Islington, north London, Sky News met a group of young people all involved in digital creation.
Within seconds of going on their social media platforms, harmful content appears: a racist post about ‘white power’; critical messages about body image; fake promises; disinformation and a video of police brutally arresting a 16-year-old.
“There’s always a lot of violence on social media,” says Braulio Chimbembe. “I saw one video where someone was getting shot which takes the innocence from children.”
“That stuff shouldn’t be on social media and shouldn’t be so easily accessible.”
But Braulio says reporting it isn’t always effective: “I think the person has to be reported twice before anything actually gets done.”
Marcus Austin agrees: “I’ve seen footballers completely insulted on social media and nothing really happens.”
His friend Joshua Lyken adds: “You think it’s normal after a while so you’re not going to really report it or tell someone about it, it just becomes normal to you.”
Ofcom says the most common online potential harms encountered by young users include generally offensive or bad language (28%), misinformation (22%), unwelcome friend or follow requests (21%), trolling (17%), bullying, abusive behaviour and threats (14%), content depicting violence (14%), and hateful, offensive or discriminatory content that targets a group based on specific characteristics (14%).
It says more than three quarters (77%) of those who were bothered or offended enough took…
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Source : skynews
