How child development shapes the building of social connections and communities online

The digital world can cause much controversy when it comes to children and young people: when, how and what should they have access to, why do they seek connection online and who is responsible and accountable for their safety? One of the NSPCC goals is to transform the online world so it is safe for children. This project aims to better understand how children and young people (aged 6-17 years old) approach online environments so that we can provide evidence suitable to inform a range of online safety actors and audiences including technology and media companies, concerning their adoption of best practice for delivering developmentally appropriate child protection measures on their platforms.

Children and young people are often categorised by their biological age, yet with a wide range of potentially influential characteristics, taking an intersectional approach is essential: for example, including the factors of age, sex, home-life and SEND status. We are particularly interested in children and young people’s motivations, behaviours, decision-making, openness or resistance, self-presentation, identity navigation and risk awareness when seeking and/or forming online connections. Whilst also bearing in mind children and young people’s rights and growing autonomy.

The project will run a rapid (systematic) literature review to identify relevant studies from both academic databases and grey literature sources to form an evidence-based narrative synthesis report.