- While not always upsetting or illegal, there is content online that may promote beliefs that could lead to hurt or harm, either for a child or for other groups or individuals.
- Examples of content promoting hurtful/harmful beliefs include hate speech, discrimination and extreme views/ideologies. These may be expressed as opinions on a social network, as information or ‘fact’ or in other ways that may disguise its true nature. Although this content may not be directly hurtful or harmful to a child encountering it, it may have the potential to influence their beliefs over time, which could lead to hurtful or harmful treatment of others.
- There is also content present online that encourages people to engage in hurtful or harmful behaviour, often towards themselves but also towards others.
- Examples of content promoting hurtful/harmful behaviour include content that promotes self-harm in any form (such as pro-anorexia, pro-cutting or pro-suicide) and content that promotes committing acts of harm against an individual or group, including terrorism content. Health and well-being is one area where harmful behaviours may be promoted through unhealthy dieting practices, challenges, exercise regimes or promotion of the use of medication or other substances.
- It can be difficult for anyone online, child or adult, to recognise when content may be seeking to promote hurtful or harmful belief and behaviours. Content of this kind may be presented as fact when it is purely opinion or even untrue. False or misleading information may be combined with accurate information to make it sound more plausible. If the source of the information is someone a child admires or trusts, this makes it more likely that they might believe or act on the information. More information on this can be found in ‘Misinformation, fake news and deep fakes’.
Advice:
- A key way to help your students protect themselves and others from hurtful and harmful content is to teach them critical reasoning skills in order to discern between fact and opinion online. The section ‘Misinformation, fake news and deep fakes’ contains more information and advice on how to help children to make judgements on the trustworthiness of online content.
- Remind your students that content that encourages hate or discrimination, or harm towards themselves or others is not acceptable and should not be considered as good advice.
- Children sometimes stumble across hurtful or harmful content online because they have questions about themselves, the world or other people. Providing opportunities for open and age appropriate discussions with your students and making it clear that you can answer any questions they have can encourage them to seek answers from more trusted sources rather than online. Remind your students that the best advice for their health or well-being will always be from a doctor or medical professional.
- Your school may use filtering and monitoring to restrict what students can access online when using technology in school. It can be beneficial to explain to students why these systems are in place and what types of content are blocked.
- If you are concerned that a child has been affected by content online that has negatively influenced their beliefs or behaviour then it is important to follow this up in line with your child protection policy.